PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has officially accepted an invitation to attend the coronation of the UK’s King Charles III on May 6.
He confirmed the development on Twitter yesterday.
“I’m most excited to announce that I have accepted an invitation to the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III. I met with the British Ambassador, Melanie Robinson. We also discussed trade, investment and the special relationship between Zimbabwe and the UK,” tweeted the President on his official account.
The British Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Melanie Robinson, visited President Mnangagwa at State House in Harare on 11 April to make arrangements for his trip to the European country for the Coronation Ceremony of King Charles III.
While Zimbabwe has been isolated from the Western world for more than two decades owing largely to the land reform programme, which restored land back to its rightful owners, the country has managed to turn a new page owing to the President’s thrust of “friend to all, enemy to none”.
Relations with countries like the United Kingdom and the United States are now thawing and President Mnangagwa will join other dignitaries for the coronation of King Charles III in May.
This will be President Mnangagwa’s first visit to the United Kingdom since he came into power in 2017.
Ambassador Robinson spoke to the media after meeting President Mnangagwa and said the two discussed arrangements for the coronation ceremony of King Charles III.
“I had a good meeting with the President of Zimbabwe. I had the opportunity to talk to him about arrangements for the coronation of His Majesty the King to which the President has been invited and he told me that he had accepted that invitation, so he will be travelling to London for that,” she said.
Ambassador Robinson said the two also spoke about her country exhibiting at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair and the forthcoming elections among other issues.
“We also discussed trade and investment, including recent investments by a UK company NMS in clinics and hospitals here and I talked about the UK going to the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in a couple of weeks’ time in Bulawayo,” she said.
“We also had the opportunity to discuss the elections and the President committed them to be free, fair, peaceful and transparent which I welcomed and a range of other issues of mutual interest to our countries.”
Queen Elizabeth II, the UK’s longest-serving monarch, died last year on September 8 at Balmoral aged 96 after reigning for 70 years.
She died peacefully at her Scottish estate where she had spent much of the summer.
The Queen came to the throne in 1952 and witnessed enormous social change.
President Mnangagwa has said his administration’s engagement and re-engagement efforts continue to bear fruit as evidenced by the partial removal of illegal sanctions by the European Union.
Last year, Harare was for the first time, invited to the United States-Africa summit. – The Herald
