President Hakainde Hichilema says South Africa is Zambia’s key trading partner, as SA minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr. Naledi Pandor, pays a courtesy call at the State House today.
Hichilema said he will “deeply anchor the strong and historic relations between our two sister countries for the mutual benefit of our citizens.”
He said:
We were updated on the preparations for the inaugural session of the Bi-National Commission (BNC).
Our governments should leverage on our intertwined relations to encourage businesses to invest in areas of mutual benefit for regional development, such as the opportunities presented by the global energy crisis. Africa is in a unique position of hosting many of the critical minerals needed for clean energy technologies. As Africans, we should hold hands and use this opportunity to focus on value addition through mineral beneficiation, local manufacturing and agro-processing.
The two pillars of our foreign policy are Economic diplomacy on one side and peace, stability and security on the other. We reiterated that while we are concerned about the trouble spots of instability in the SADC region and across the world, we continue to advocate for flying the flag of peaceful resolution through dialogue.
Peace is the key ingredient needed to enable our governments to deliver prosperity for our people.
Hakainde Hichilema
President of the Republic of Zambia
