The bilateral discussion between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe on the sidelines of the SPIEF meeting, was a revealing reflection of the way that most of the Global South is rapidly turning away from the collapsing trans-Atlantic system, and towards Russia and China.
The Kremlin reported that Mnangagwa greeted Putin with the following comments: “There is no need to shy away from each other. I think our pursuit in terms of international relations is the same… We don’t care what other countries say about us, you know, under President Mugabe. And there was this Prime Minister in Britain, and the relations just ended there. And thereafter, most of the British and Americans, they have not looked upon us; they think that we are too inclined to the East. But we have no apologies at all. We feel we have better relations with the people who also respect us, not the persons who look down upon us… We got our independence because we are supported by yourselves here, and we don’t forget that history, and you don’t forget about us.”
Mnangagwa concluded: “We cannot go to the West; we have to come here because the West would want to see us down.”
