Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr Sibusiso Moyo has appealed to Australia to support the country’s Commonwealth readmission agenda.
In 2003, Zimbabwe became the third country after South Africa in 1961 and Pakistan in 1971 to voluntarily withdraw its membership from the Commonwealth.
The late Robert Mugabe, then president of Zimbabwe, initiated a voluntary withdrawal following the country’s suspension by the Commonwealth troika to which former prime minister of Australia, Mr John Howard was a part.
In an article published in an Australian-based publication, the Spectator, the foreign Affairs Minister appealed to Commonwealth member states to support the Zimbabwean agenda. He said:
But, ultimately, we cannot go it alone — and that’s why Zimbabwe now looks to Australia for support to expedite our re-admission to the Commonwealth. Put simply, our speed and capacity to complete reforms after Mugabe-era isolationism can be accelerated by our Commonwealth return.
He added that bilateral agreements between the two countries could yield more positive results if both countries were members of the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth consists of 53 member states, nearly all of them former colonies of the British Empire.
More: The Herald