ZAMBIA SHOULD CONSIDER JOINING BRICS – MUKWITA

By NATION REPORTER 

ZAMBIAN journalists have been challenged to ask uncomfortable questions on whether Zambia under the Hakainde Hichilema administration has applied for membership under the rising BRICS club.

Anthony Mukwita, Zambia’s former Ambassador to Germany says Zambia would gain rather than lose by joining the fast-rising international group sooner rather than later. 

“We are happy that President Hichilema represented us well as a country at the BRICS heads of State summit now BRICS+Six,” Amb Mukwita said. “What we need now is clarity from the government. Our journalists should ask uncomfortable questions now on whether Zambia has applied to become a member of the growing political economic group or not,” Mr Mukwita said when he featured on KBN TV televised interview. 

Mr Mukwita, an international relations scholar and a published author and former newspaper said more than 60 countries had applied to join BRICS including what he called heavy-weights such as Indonesia and Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria.

“What does Zambia lose by applying to be a memberbecause it simply gives us options for better economic deals instead of putting all our eggs in one western basket,” Mr Mukwita said.

He said the holy grail of international economic and political relations was always to engage and talk to everyone instead of publicly and undiplomatically choosing sides.

He gave an example of Chinese economic reformist leader Deng (1904-97) who opened China to the western world and business and said; “To me the colour of the cat does not matter as long as it catches mice. It is about results not Western or Eastern centric.” 

Mr Mukwita, implored Zambia to learn from nations like China that removed more than 100 million from poverty in under thirty years and start talking to everybody and not take sides.

Mr Mukwita hailed the entry of two more African countries into the BRICS+Six, namely Egypt and Ethiopia which join Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Iran in the ever-growing club of emerging markets on the globe and refuses to slow down.

“The BRICS+Six are now responsible for 40 percent of the global population and 30 percent of the globes GDP.  I am not saying Zambia quits the 75-year-old dominance of the US led IMF and World Bank…just talk to everyone is good for Zambia,” Mr Mukwita said. 

Mr Mukwita also beseeched Zambians to cherish the undisrupted peace and stability Zambia has enjoyed for close to 59 years.

“The peace we continue to enjoy from independence to date must be cherished because like a broken glass it’s hard to put back once lost,” he said. 

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