Dr Nevers Mumba
THANK YOU VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: WHAT ZAMBIA NEEDS RIGHT NOW IS HELP WITH THE ECONOMY.
We salute and commend Vice President Kamala Harris for honoring us by not raising the issue of LGBTQ rights during her visit.
Every home has rules. In some homes, you are required to remove your shoes at the front door. In others alcohol is never served for instance. A good guest respects the rules of his host. While He or she may wish to keep his shoes on, but this would be considered arrogant and insensitive. The other may insist on being served with alcohol against the rules of the house, but again, this would be considered as being disrespectful to the host.
Vice President Kamala Harris has respected us as a Christian Nation and stayed away from issues which can divide us. We commend her leadership in this regard.
Zambia has values and beliefs. America also has her own values and beliefs. We don’t agree on everything but we agree on many things. Accepting and respecting each other’s values is called mutual respect and it’s the description of healthy diplomatic relations.
We commend President Hichilema for Clearly Articulating our Foreign Policy Position and economic agenda and for staying on course during his meetings with the US Vice President. We wish to echo the President’s appeal to the US and many other nations of interest to us: As at Present, Zambia’s Foreign Policy is entirely focused on the ongoing economic restructuring program and we hope they can facilitate the quick financial and technical support to that effect and to ensure that we do not start to erode the gains we have already posted over the last two years. Also, it must be clear from henceforth, that developing good relations with the west, in the interest of Zambia by this government does not in anyway mean the negation of our long standing good relationship with other economic blocks. What we care for is that in the end, our nation remains a good player in the global community and that we maintain relations in the interest of the ordinary Zambians both at home and abroad.
We also wish to commend the church, civil society and the many Zambians who spoke about our collective position on the issue of LGBTQ which helped to demonstrate the non negotiable collective resolve and atmosphere in the nation.
We believe our bilateral relations with the US remain strong and have only become stronger with the visit of Vice President Harris.