Zim, Malawi are eternal brothers — Chakwera

Wallace Ruzvidzo-Herald Reporter

ZIMBABWE and Malawi are brotherly countries who continue to cooperate in various international fora, including in Zimbabwe’s bid for a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) seat, Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera has said.

The Malawian leader arrived in the country yesterday to attend SADC’s Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) Conference chaired by President Mnangagwa, with the two holding bilateral talks on the sidelines of the indaba.

Speaking to the media after their closed-door meeting and lunch, President Chakwera said Harare and Lilongwe were cooperating at regional and international levels.

“Zimbabwe is also running for offices, we cooperate on international levels as well, so we talked about all of this at the UN and so forth. Zimbabwe is my brother, I am Zimbabwe’s brother, and you can take it from there,” he said.

President Chakwera said he had also expressed gratitude to his “brother” President Mnangagwa for the hospitality he had experienced since his arrival.

“I was expressing my gratitude for the hospitality and the fact that since he became SADC Chair, I haven’t been back and this was a privilege for me and an honour to be here,” he said.

Quizzed on the importance of TFCAs, the Malawian leader said they were the way to go.

“The collaboration, the working together across nations in order for us to conserve what God has given us is something that does need collaboration because the artificial boundaries that were created and imposed upon us are what I just said, artificial really.

“And so we need to be able as nations to work together, integrate, face similar issues together, and particularly now that we are talking about conservation and so forth, these are important matters because it is the future of our children and grandchildren, not ours,” he said.

President Chakwera said it was also imperative that young people be actively involved in the TFCAs.

“We need young people’s involvement because agreements and protocols that nations make are not sufficient in themselves if the grassroots do not embrace the same.

“On this continent, the most population is youthful, they need to be the ones to embrace these things so that they are not just agreements on paper, they are things that they work out, and the future is bright,” he said.

Zimbabwe and Malawi traditionally enjoy cordial relations.

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