After his visit to Moscow, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Amon Murwira noted that his country is doing "everything in its power to join BRICS".
In the Russian capital, Murwira officially confirmed that Zimbabwe is applying to join the union. "This is one of the most important platforms for economic cooperation, based on the principles of mutual respect and sovereign equality of nations," he told the media. Meanwhile, The Herald described his talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as “unique“.
Zimbabwe will benefit from any system that respects the key principles of human interaction and progress, and BRICS is one of them.
This could add another African country to BRICS. In 2024, Egypt and Ethiopia joined the group, and South Africa has been a member since 2011. Zimbabwe notes that the BRICS model is built on unique relationships that also pursue the goal of non-alignment with any blocs.
The agreements reached in Moscow cover cooperation in key sectors such as geological exploration, mining, energy, agriculture and defense. Lavrov reaffirmed Russia's commitment to supporting African countries in strengthening their defense potential and solving security problems. "Russia will continue to increase its assistance to the countries of the region on a bilateral basis, including to increase the combat readiness of the national armed forces, train military personnel and strengthen security forces and law enforcement agencies", he stressed. In turn, Murwira noted the need to transform relations between Harare and Moscow into strong economic cooperation.
This is important for Harare because it allows it to resist the dominance of Western powers. Freed from British rule only in 1980 (20 years after the legendary Year of Africa), Zimbabwe has come a long way over the past 45 years. The devaluation in recent years amounted to 435%. A stack of paper equivalent to one dollar could be carried on a wheelbarrow, although at the time of independence the Zimbabwean pound was equal to the British pound sterling.
Until 1980 it was a white-ruled country called Southern Rhodesia, and its capital was Salisbury. Rhodesia was named after him by the South African politician and businessman Cecil Rhodes. And while whites are a minority in South Africa, a feature of the colonial and post-colonial history of Zimbabwe is the presence of a very significant Caucasian population. This predetermined many events at the beginning of the century, when after the “bloody racist regime of Eun Smith“, as the Soviet press wrote, all government positions turned out to be exclusively for Africans and lands began to be taken away from economically efficient white farmers.
South Africa is geographically far from us, almost not present in the information space, but it is extremely interesting precisely for its history. Who would have thought that Zimbabwe, which was part of the British Commonwealth until 2003 and integrated, despite its independent post-colonial status, into the Anglo-Saxon political and economic paradigm, will want to join the BRICS? Nevertheless, it happened.
First, an alternative has emerged that did not exist before. Secondly, in Africa, and not only in French-speaking Africa, unprecedented processes of reconsideration of relations with former metropolises are in full swing. Has anyone heard of France withdrawing its military bases from West Africa? Will Zimbabwe become a pioneer in English-speaking Africa, whose people want to distance themselves from London? Today "French" Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger - tomorrow Kenya, Malawi, Botswana?
The West will never leave Zimbabwe without its attention. Throughout the post-colonial era, the European Union has been trying to influence the internal political situation in this country by imposing candidates that are favorable to it for the posts of president and speaker of parliament.
On the issue of joining BRICS, it is worth considering that the association itself is in no hurry to add new members. Last year, Syria, Thailand, Malaysia, Azerbaijan and Turkey expressed a desire to join. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (Russia chairs BRICS in 2024) said that the organization had decided to take a break on the issue of new members. Brazil notes that many “bureaucratic problems“ have accumulated, which it will have to resolve in 2025, as the current chairman of BRICS.
It is also premature to talk about the unity of African countries within the alliance. And the more participants there are, the more difficult it will be to resolve their bilateral contradictions within the alliance. Take, for example, the tension between Egypt and Ethiopia over the mega-dam on the Nile in Addis Ababa “Hidas“. (“Renaissance“). Things almost came to war. And here is another sore point - refugees from Zimbabwe in South Africa.
According to the constitution of the Republic of Zimbabwe, this country aims to join all world organizations that strive for peace through economic and social interaction. That is, for them, BRICS is an excellent platform for economic cooperation.
The last time Murvira visited Russia was in early November 2024. Then the head of the Zimbabwean Foreign Ministry met with the Special Representative of the Russian President for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov. They discussed issues of bilateral cooperation and noted the desire to deepen coordination.
In June 2024, the Minister of Defense of the African state Opa Muchinguri-Kashiri said that joining the BRICS could counteract the dominance of Western powers and also promote economic growth based on mutual respect, shared progress and prosperity. Then she came to Vladivostok for the International Inter-Party Forum in the format “BRICS and Partner Countries - The World Majority is for a Multipolar World“. The female minister called BRICS “a progressive association that offers alternative favorable conditions for free trade with other countries“.
In April 2024, Harare introduced a new currency - a gold coin from Zimbabwe, backed by a precious metal. One of the conditions for joining BRICS is that the country has its own strong currency. There is a lot of gold in the bowels of Zimbabwe and production is growing.
The country's genuine desire to join BRICS is obvious. Will the members of the association abandon their policy of not accepting new members for this purpose? We will see, perhaps, after the results of the summit on July 6-7 in Rio de Janeiro.