Latest: Mugabe preaches at Africa-Arab summit in Equatorial Guinea

Today, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe encouraged African and Arab countries to cooperate and trade with each other in the face of unfair competition from industrialised western countries.

Speaking in front of heads of state and government, sheikhs and emirs at the just-ended Africa-Arab Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea today, Mugabe said there is need to build strategic partnerships to improve the welfare of nations.

President Mugabe blasted the unbalanced North-South cooperation, which he described as an extension of colonialism, and unsuitable for the less privileged countries of the south.

“For the countries of the south, the economic pattern has been the continuous export of primary products and raw materials to feed the insatiable industrial needs of northerners,” said Mugabe.

He expressed hope that the Africa-Arab cooperation can and should be utilised as an instrument to enhance trade and investment and the relationship will be taken to higher levels that reflect the strong cultural ties, geographical proximity and the potential that exists within and between the two regions.