Mozambique: You reap what you sow, warns Chapo - Watch
“The success of Mozambican diplomacy was due to Frelimo’s ability to win new friends”
4:21 CAT | 22 Nov 2019
Photo: O País
A panel of Mozambique liberators: Joaquim Chissano, Helder Martins, Feliciano Gundana and Mariano Matsinhe, met this afternoon to share their knowledge on “The Genesis of Foreign Policy in Mozambique: Liberation Diplomacy”.
Helder Martins was first to speak at the 3D Arena in Katembe, where a diplomatic symposium in honour of Joaquim Chissano is being held. For the former Minister of Health, the great success of Mozambican diplomacy while they were fighting for the country’s liberation was Frelimo’s ability to win new friends and avoid enemies. In applying this principle, Martins said, Frelimo was able to choose its international partners.
On the same topic, Joaquim Chissano said that, in foreign policy, Frelimo clearly defined the objectives of the armed struggle. According to Chissano, diplomacy was the premium tool in Mozambicans securing weapons and support from various nations of the world.
However, even with the policy of winning friends and avoiding enemies, one of the hardest tasks Frelimo diplomacy faced was convincing Malawi to allow passage of non-lethal military equipment like Land Rovers destined to Mozambicans fighting the Portuguese colonial oppressors.
Feliciano Gundana meanwhile stressed that Mozambican diplomacy was largely the result of contacts established by Frelimo during the armed struggle.
Mariano Matsinhe in turn stressed that one of the great virtues in the emergence of the country’s diplomatic nexus was its decision to position Mozambique as a Non-Aligned Country during the Cold War, which opposed mainly the Americans and the Russians.
By Jose dos Remedios
Source: O País
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