As I write, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ assessment team has completed its mission to Equatorial Guinea. I paid a State visit to that sister Republic early this year, during which several agreements meant to deepen our bilateral relations were inked. We shall be opening a full Embassy in that oil-rich African country with which we have enjoyed all-round relations. My counterpart, President Nguema Mbasogo, will be replying to my State visit once arrangements are finalised. In the meantime, we will be hosting the President of Senegal, His Excellency Macky Sall, who is billed to open our Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, ZITF, in Bulawayo.
Further afield, similar missions have concluded visits to Belarus and Pakistan. We will be opening embassies in both countries before long. Belarusian leader, President Lukashenko, was in our country early this year, in response to my invitation to him to pay us a State visit. This followed an inaugural visit I made to Belarus as President of Zimbabwe in January 2018. Belarus has been and remains a solid partner in our economic development, most notably in the agricultural and mining sectors. Our ZMDC secured earthmoving equipment from Belarus following the visit I paid to that country then as Vice President under the First Republic. Our programme to modernise and mechanise Zimbabwean agriculture has largely been powered by the Republic of Belarus. The time has now come for us to upgrade our presence in that strategic country by opening a full Chancery.
Pakistan, on the other hand, played a key role in setting up our Airforce of Zimbabwe, AFZ, soon after independence. Not many Zimbabweans know that a whole squadron of our jet fighter planes was blown up by embittered Rhodesian airmen stationed at the then Thornhill Airbase, now Josiah Tungamirai Airbase, in Gweru, in the early days of our independence. As if that was not enough, efforts at Africanising our Airforce by integrating our freedom fighters who had trained as airforce pilots in different countries were also frustrated by the white command then exclusively running the Airforce.
It was then that we turned to the Republic of Pakistan to assist us, including asking it to second a senior officer, Air Marshal Daud Pota, who became the first-ever commander of our nascent Airforce after independence. The officer remained with us until our commanders, notably the late General Solomon Mujuru, and the late Air Chief Marshall Josiah Tungamirai, who eventually took over from the Pakistani, finished their training. Since then, our two airforces have maintained close relations, including in the training of our airmen, technicians on equipment and in other security-related fields. We now feel this relationship has matured enough to warrant the opening of a full Chancery in Islamabad.
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