Published by the government of Zimbabwe
26 July 2007
Harare — The new Brazilian and New Zealand ambassadors to Zimbabwe yesterday presented their credentials to President Mugabe at State House in Harare.
First to present his papers was Brazilian ambassador Mr Raul Taunay.
Speaking to journalists after meeting the President, Mr Taunay said Brazil viewed Zimbabwe as an important country in the Sadc region and the whole of Africa.
He said relations between the two countries were cemented by the fact that they had so much in common as developing nations.
Mr Taunay said President Mugabe explained to him his and Government's vision for the development of Zimbabwe while he also touched on his country's vision.
"We are in the same sense looking forward that the relations will develop.
"Zimbabwe is a very important country in Africa. We opened an embassy here in the early years of independence because Zimbabwe is a strategic country in the region," he said.
Mr Malcolm McGoun described his meeting with the President as a business-like conversation in which both sides acknowledged that relations between Zimbabwe and New Zealand were at their lowest.
"We had a frank discussion about that (the differences)," Mr McGoun said.
New Zealand and Australia are in alliance with Britain and the European Union as well as the United States in pushing a regime change agenda in Zimbabwe.
They have imposed illegal economic sanctions and openly support the MDC as part of the agenda.
This followed Zimbabwe's decision to compulsorily acquire land from some of the 4 000 white commercial farmers - who held large tracts of the country's prime farming land - for redistribution to the previously marginalised black majority.
New Zealand closed its embassy in Harare and relocated to South Africa at the height of the land reform programme claiming it was cutting costs.
But political analysts saw the move as a subtle protest against the land reform programme.
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