Zimbabwe will support China as an alternative world power, President Robert Mugabe declared on Tuesday as his country faced an uncertain future within the Commonwealth.
Mugabe, who was delivering a state-of-the-nation address to Parliament, said China is increasingly becoming “an alternative global power point” indicating “a new alternative direction, which in fact could be the foundation of a new global paradigm”.
“Zimbabwe must work for this new paradigm, which is founded on principles of sovereignty and independence,” he declared.
On Friday last week Mugabe indicated that Zimbabwe was ready to quit the Commonwealth after he was left out of this week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Nigeria.
On Tuesday he attacked the current “unipolar order”.
“We abhor the global high-handedness of the strong and powerful,” he said.
“We abhor unilateral interference in the internal political affairs of other countries, especially smaller states,” said Mugabe, whose country was last year suspended from the Commonweath councils for alleged electoral fraud and rights abuses.
“Recent events in Iraq have clearly shown that a unipolar order that presently governs international relations is both unjust and unsustainable. It is a source of conflict, and even of war,” he warned.
“Our continued membership of the Commonwealth … is dependent on this fundamental consideration, currently being vitiated by Britain, Australia and New Zealand — the Anglo-Saxon unholy alliance against Zimbabwe,” he said.
Mugabe gave the 30-minute address as the country was struggling to cope with a deep economic crisis characterised by hyperinflation, poverty, 70% unemployment levels and shortages of most basic goods and services. — Sapa-AFP
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