A DIPLOMATIC rift between European superpowers Britain and
Germany over Zimbabwe emerged this week when the British government hosted
Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa while the Germans barred him from visiting.
This came as Berlin adopts a cautious approach towards the Zimbabwean
government, ushered in through a military intervention last year, in line with
the European Union stance.
Chinamasa was in Britain this week for high-level
diplomatic talks aimed at mending ties between Harare and London. British
Secretary for Foreign Affairs Boris Johnson on Tuesday tweeted that he was
excited to meet Chinamasa.
Government sources told the Zimbabwe Independent that
Chinamasa also intended to visit European economic powerhouse Germany but was
turned down, resulting in him limiting his visit to the more receptive London.
Britain and other countries in the European Union (EU)
differ on their approach to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government. The
British are more accommodative and want to support the new administration as
much as possible but the EU block has taken a cautious approach.
Britain has been aggressive in its support of the new administration.
It has been impressed by statements made by Mnangagwa so far on economic and
political reforms.
However, the EU wants government to match rhetoric with
action, particularly on the implementation of critical political and economic
reforms before committing significant funding to the broke government.
The EU says the bloc would consider scaling up financial
assistance to Zimbabwe if Mnangagwa’s government delivers on its pledge to hold
free, fair and credible elections, as well as implement reforms that would set
the country’s fragile economy on a firm growth trajectory.
Despite the differences in approach, both Britain and the
EU’s 28 member states have demanded a commitment to credible, peaceful, free
and fair elections that are monitored by international observers.
Sources in government say although the Germans have decided
to be supportive of the Mnangagwa administration, they do not want to fully
endorse the regime until it fairly wins polls and ushers in tangible reforms,
hence the snub.
Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel in December sent Mnangagwa
a congratulatory message after his inauguration.
Merkel said: “Germany will support you as a partner in your
endeavours to start a new chapter in the history of Zimbabwe — one
characterised by democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights.”
Government sources say the Germans want to see a tangible
implementation of a number of economic, political and social reforms, given
that their nationals’ investments, including farms and wildlife conservancies,
protected under the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement
with Zimbabwe have over the years been grabbed.
Germany ambassador to Zimbabwe Thorsten Hutter confirmed
Chinamasa failed to visit Berlin this week. He attributed the failure to
transitions taking place in his country, although he admitted there were also
bilateral bottlenecks to be taken care of.
“We do hope that the minister of Finance (Chinamasa) whom I
had seen last Friday will indeed come to Germany soon and of course he is
welcome in Germany. What I had explained is that we have a caretaker government
at the moment. Tomorrow (today) the internal poll within the Social Democratic
party will end and if the Social Democratic Party membership as a whole votes
in favour of the grand coalition between the Socio Democrats and the Christian
Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union then within the next two or
three weeks a new government will be formed,” said Hutter.
“But at the moment we only have a caretaker government so
we thought that the timing was not right. Indeed there are some bilateral
issues that we thought should be resolved before the visit. I hope that is
something that we will be able to sort out in the coming days.”
Germany has the largest national economy in Europe, the
fourth-largest by nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the world after
United States in America, China and Japan, and fifth by GDP (purchasing power
parity). It surpasses Britain which is in the process of pulling out of the EU
through its controversial Brexit process.
Other super powers like the US have also been cautious with
Zimbabwe. The US recently extended its targeted sanctions with the possibility
of a review after the general elections expected later this year.
China has been a less noisy and visible but it has embraced
Mnangagwa’s government behind the scenes. Zimbabwe Independent
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