Harare, (New Ziana) – Three new ambassadors from Nicaragua, Norway and Gambia presented their credentials to President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday, and all pledged to deepen cooperation between their countries and Zimbabwe.
First to present her credentials was Nicaraguan ambassador, Nadeska Imara Cuthbert Carlson, who said Zimbabwe and her country had a long-standing relationship dating to the country’s liberation struggle.
She said her country intends to strengthen relations with Zimbabwe especially in areas such as agriculture, education and health, as wellas co-operating closely in diplomacy in international affairs.
Gjermund Saether is Norway’s new ambassador to Zimbabwe, and also cited good relations between the two countries from the days of the liberation struggle.
Like Nicaragua, he said his country was willing to cooperate with Zimbabwe in the areas of agriculture and energy.
“We have a long history going back to your struggle for freedom. I think there is great potential moving forward in terms of investment, but I think we also need to know each other better and I think that is the area that we can improve the economic ties.”
New Gambian ambassador, Dr Fatoumata Jahumpa Ceesay also promised to deepen cooperation between her country and Zimbabwe in various fields such as agriculture, tourism and mining.
“We have discussed with His Excellency the President many issues. Number one is the bilateral cooperation that we intend to carry on. As you know, Gambia is predominantly a farming country and agriculture is number one to our economy including tourism.”
She said they also discussed the possibility of exporting excess elephants from
Zimbabwe to Gambia in order to boost that country’s tourism sector.
“So we also talked about mining, you know Gambia is interested and Zimbabwe is ahead of us. We also want to cooperate in heritage and culture and higher education, so this is what we discussed. The President has instructed that immediately we work together with technicians through our able ministers of foreign affairs,” she said.
Dr Ceesay said it was also encouraging to learn that the two ministers already knew each other, both as foreign ministers and former ambassadors in New York.
She also relayed from her President a message of solidarity to his Zimbabwean counterpart in his bid to re-join the Commonwealth, adding that her country was vying for the secretary generalship of the Commonwealth this year.
New Ziana
