Officials from Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Defence and their Belarussian counterparts signed a military cooperation action plan in Harare on Tuesday, 20 February.
State-owned Belarusian national news agency, BeITA reported that members of the Belarusian delegation are part of the defence committee of the Belarus-Zimbabwe Standing Commission for Cooperation.
The signing ceremony was attended by Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Belarus Ignatius Graham Mudzimba, and Belarus’ Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Igor Marshalov.
The action plan was signed for the first time.
Meanwhile, Belarus is expected to begin delivering tractors and combine harvesters to Zimbabwe under the agricultural mechanization programme this year.
Marshalov told reporters that cooperation between Belarus and Zimbabwe has been making a lot of progress recently. He said:
This year we are starting to supply tractor equipment and combine harvesters.
In the 1980s, Zimbabwe was dubbed the breadbasket of Africa. They need a large number of tractors and combines.
This year, it is one of two countries in Africa that has met domestic demand for wheat, and there is room for improvement. We will be happy to assist Zimbabwe.
Following the launch of the agricultural mechanization programme in 2020, Belarus has supplied more than 1,800 tractors and about 80 combine harvesters to Zimbabwe.
The third phase of the programme provides for the supply of agricultural equipment worth over US$66 million, namely more than 3 700 units of tractor equipment and 60 combine harvesters.
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