Łukašenka to visit Zimbabwe

January 29, BPN. Zimbabwean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade reports that Alaksandr Łukašenka will visit Zimbabwe from January 30 to February 1. The Belarusian leader and Zimbabwe’s Emmerson Mnangagwa are expected to conduct negotiations.

The report reads that the two countries maintain close political and economic ties, cooperating on mining, agriculture and disaster risk management. The two leaders would launch the second phase of an agricultural mechanization program and sign several deals.

The Zimbabwean foreign ministry calls the visit historic because Łukašenka has never visited the country in Southeast Africa in the course of his rule. In 2015, then-Vice President Mnangagwa met with Łukašenka in Minsk. As head of state, he visited Belarus four years later. Belarus opened an embassy in Zimbabwe on July 11, 2022.

Ahead of the visit, NewZimbabwe.com wrote about controversies surrounding Belarusian-Zimbabwean cooperation. One involved the Zimbabwean government’s purchase of fire engines “for local authorities despite the fact that the councils never asked for them,” it wrote. Mnangagwa’s government also reportedly “handpicked Belarusian companies believed to be his allies to buy diamonds.” The website also mentioned the purchase of supposedly Belarusian buses that sparked controversy in 2020.