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President Mugabe greets Chinese President Xi Jinping at Shangri-la Hotel in Indonesia yesterday

From Caesar Zvayi in JAKARTA, Indonesia—
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe yesterday held bilateral meetings in addition to chairing and officially closing the Asia-Africa Commemorative Conference. The President, who will this morning represent Africa at the Bandung Conference commemoration, first paid a courtesy call on Chinese President Xi Jinping at Shangri-la Hotel, a meeting that was described by Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi as a critical follow-up to the nine infrastructure deals signed between Zimbabwe and China during President Mugabe’s 13th State visit to Beijing in August last year.

“The President has had a very, very good meeting with the President Xi Jinping,” Minister Mumbengegwi said. “The discussion was wide-ranging and covered virtually all areas of co-operation. In fact it was an important follow-up to the State visit that President Mugabe made to China in August last year where a number of very important agreements, which are currently being implemented in the agricultural sector, in the energy sector and in the infrastructural sector were signed.

‘‘So, the two Presidents had a very good exchange of views on all these areas of co-operation. They also had fruitful exchange of views on general global issues such as reform of the UN Security Council and other organs of the United Nations. So, it was a very good meeting.’’

The government has signed multi-billion dollar mega-deals with China to revamp infrastructure in line with the government’s five-year economic blueprint, Zim-Asset, which identifies infrastructure development as a key enabler of economic growth.

Zimbabwe-China trade has since ballooned, reaching $1,1 billion in 2014.

From Shangri-la, the President headed for his hotel where he welcomed the Speaker of the Supreme Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kim Yong Nam, who delivered a special message from his principal President Kim Jong-un.

Though the DPRK delegation refused to take questions from journalists, Minister Mumbengegwi said the President and Yong Nam held fruitful deliberations centred on the historic relations between Harare and Pyongyang.

“The President and the Speaker of the DPRK had a very fruitful bilateral meeting where they discussed past relations and the work that has been done between the two countries starting from way back during the liberation struggle, how the DPRK supported and trained our forces,” he said.

“After independence, you know that our Heroes Acre was in fact the work of co-operation between Zimbabwe and the DPRK. Of course, looking forward they agreed to strengthen the relationship.”

President Mugabe then left for the Jakarta Convention Centre, venue of the conference, where he met host President Joko Widodo, before meeting Rami Ramdallah, the foreign affairs minister of Palestine.

The bilateral meeting with Widodo, the host president, was preceded by the signing of an MoU for the establishment of a joint commission between Zimbabwe and Indonesia.

Zimbabwe and Palestine enjoy excellent relations, with Zimbabwe being a long time supporter of the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.

Zimbabwe supports the proposed two-State solution where Israel and Palestine would co-exist, with East Jerusalem being the capital of the Palestinian State, a position that was reaffirmed in the declaration adopted yesterday at the close of the Asia-Africa conference that called for comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East.