Middle East & Africa | Zimbonomics 101

Zimbabwe wants to come in from the cold

But that would require Zanu-PF to change its thuggish ways

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko (C-L) shakes hands with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa (C-R) at State House in Harare, Zimbabwe, on January 31, 2023 after a signing ceremony of bilateral agreements for economic cooperation between the two countries. (Photo by Jekesai NJIKIZANA / AFP) (Photo by JEKESAI NJIKIZANA/AFP via Getty Images)
The best that each could getImage: Getty Images
| HARARE

It is a revealing journey from Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport to downtown Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. A new Chinese-built terminal is all but empty. On Airport Road the first billboard, commissioned by a Belarusian agriculture firm, features a photo of a red tractor and a welcome for Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’s president (pictured). Earlier this year this ally of Vladimir Putin became one of the few non-African heads of state to visit the isolated country.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Zimbabwe would like to come in from the cold”

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