Zambia will not be a pawn for any super power
By. Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
When the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member, Sen. Jim Risch, Republican Senator from Idaho, met President Hakainde Hichilema, he tweeted about his admiration of meeting an African leader who is at the centre of working hard to “curb China’s malign and predatory influence in Zambia, as well as increase cooperation with the US.”
This tweet was careless from many fronts. If this what he told Senator Risch, It will be a serious diplomatic blunder if Hichilema has engaged himself to fight China.
China is Zambia’s biggest trading partner and currently the largest creditor of her foreign debt.
This narrative went to confirm long-standing assertions and fears that President Hichilema is a puppet of the West and promotes interests of multi-national corporations.
I expected a fierce rebuttal from State House against this careless tweet but I guess the team wouldn’t bother to ruffle the feathers of the powerful Senator sitting on an influential senate committee.
But Mr. Hichilema must be reminded that Zambia will not be a pawn of any super power.
Foubder President, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, helped pioneer our diplomatic policy on non-aligned policy and showed us how to balance the interests we attract from Russia, United Kingdom, China, France and USA.
He pursued national and African interests and engaged in mutual cooperation with all the superior powers.
It is therefore regretable that President Hichilema appear keen to throw away our rich and respected foreign affairs heritage.
It is clear the United States is deeply concerned with China-Africa relations.
Trade between Africa;
Africa’s annual trade with China is $106billion while its $64billion with the USA.
China’s investment in Africa in 2019-2020 was $735 billion while it was $22billion from the USA during the same period.
President Hichilemais expected to navigate Zambia’s interest without compromising her relationship with other powers.
