Belarusia’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko arrived in Zimbabwe to pomp and fanfare on Monday, in a visit that seeks to cement economic and political ties between the two countries that are both close allies of Russia.
Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa and hundreds of singing and cheering ruling party supporters welcomed Lukashenko at the main Robert Gabriel Mugabe airport in the capital, Harare. The leaders didn’t speak to the press.
The visit, according to Zimbabwe’s foreign affairs ministry, is aimed at boosting “strong cooperation in political, economic, mining, agriculture and disaster risk management” between the two countries.
Belarus has provided Zimbabwe with farm equipment such as tractors, combine harvesters and trucks under a deal worth tens of millions of dollars following Mnangagwa’s visit to the Belarusian capital Minsk in 2019.
Zimbabwe, a close ally of Moscow’s for decades, has refused to condemn Russian President Vladmir Putin for the Ukraine invasion, instead
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