Zimbabwe President Calls for End to Sanctions after EU Talks

Before going into the talks with the EU team, Mugabe said: "We welcome you with open arms. We hope our talks will be fruitful with a positive outcome." Photo by wordpress.com

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe says his country's first high-level talks with top EU officials in seven years went well.

After the talks, in Harare, he again called for international sanctions imposed since disputed presidential election in 2002 to be lifted.

The EU team also praised the meeting but indicated it was not appropriate yet for sanctions to end and complained about the slow pace of reforms.

The EU team is also due to meet PM Morgan Tsvangirai on its visit, the BBC reported.

Before going into the talks with the EU team, Mugabe said: "We welcome you with open arms. We hope our talks will be fruitful with a positive outcome."

Mugabe said after: "We established a good rapport, it was a friendly meeting. Obviously they thought the Global Political Agreement was not working well."

The General Political Agreement is the power-sharing deal that was sealed a year ago, most importantly with Tsvangirai.

Mugabe said that "everything we were asked to do under GPA we have done".

The EU team, led by Development Commissioner Karel De Gucht, expressed satisfaction with the talks, saying there had been "progress" in a "very open atmosphere".

 

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