Spain backed Britain on Tuesday in calling for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to stay away from a European Union-Africa summit in Lisbon this week.
“We would all prefer that he does not take part because he will not bring much and he would be a media distraction,” Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told reporters.
“What is important is to discuss subjects in depth and that his presence does not take up all the headlines.”
Mugabe, usually the target of a travel ban by the EU, is due to attend the summit in Portugal on December 8 and 9.
Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he will not participate if Mugabe is there because of the president’s human rights record.
But not all other EU countries have followed his firm stance.
Portugal Foreign Minister Luis Amado recently said it was “preferable” if Mugabe did not attend, since he might divert participants from essential issues.
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Mugabe’s participation would be an opportunity to “raise all our criticisms” about the “disaster” in Zimbabwe.
Critics accuse the 83-year-old Mugabe, in power for the past 27 years, of stifling basic freedoms and political opposition.
They also blame his policies for an economic meltdown in Zimbabwe, where annual inflation is running at nearly 8 000 percent.
No EU-Africa summit has been held since the first and only one in Cairo seven years ago, as several European countries rejected inviting Mugabe.
“We still hope that Mugabe will not take part” in the Lisbon summit, Moratinos said. — AFP