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Pretoria,
South Africa, August 8, 2009 – Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton has urged South Africa to take the leadership role in
resolving issues in various countries of the continent, including
neighboring Zimbabwe, where she wanted Pretoria to press for political
and economic reforms.
She made the demand during talks Friday with her South African
counterpart, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, in the capital city of Pretoria.
Entrusted with the mission of undoing years of chilly bilateral ties,
Clinton praised South Africa as a leading nation the United States was
hoping to work with in Africa.
The two foreign ministers announced the creation of a new forum to
govern bilateral relations and business.
Clinton assured that the U.S. government would consider importing more
South African products duty-free. She urged African countries to trade
more and more with one another, thus "developing a market of 800 million
people."
After warning Eritrea over its support to Somali militants during talks
with Somali President in Kenya, Clinton arrived in South Africa late
Thursday on the second leg of her 11-day African tour.
Addressing a news conference jointly with Mashabane, she said the Obama
administration made Africa a foreign policy priority, and recognized
South Africa's "central role" in the continent.
She said South Africa and the United States were "working together to
realize the vision of a free, democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe."
She narrated how the chaos just across its northern border in Zimbabwe
was a crisis for South Africa: "South Africa has 3 million refugees from
Zimbabwe, and every one of those refugees represents a failure of the
Zimbabwean government to care for its own people, and a burden that
South Africa has to bear."
Nkoana-Mashabane said that she was present when South African President
Jacob Zuma met earlier this week in Johannesburg with Zimbabwean Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who "confirmed that they are moving forward
but that he would want us to encourage ... that they move a little bit
faster."
She cited the recent easing of restrictions on foreign media that
enabled the CNN and the BBC to resume broadcasting from Zimbabwe as a
sign of progress. Comparing Zimbabwe's coalition to an arranged
marriage, she said: "Over time, you get used to it and feel that it's
better than no marriage."
Mashabane said she believed the Obama administration would work
alongside her government and the African Union in helping to bring peace
to parts of Africa.
The then South African President Thabo Mbeki and the Bush administration
were at odds over how to handle the autocratic regime of Zimbabwe, the
HIV-AIDS policy and imposing sanctions on Myanmar.
Washington, irritated by the absence of reforms in Zimbabwe, has no
plans either to offer major aid or to lift sanctions against President
Robert Mugabe regime and some of his supporters.
Washington wants Mugabe to comply with a power-sharing agreement reached
with his political rival Tsvangirai.
A hectic schedule on her first day in South Africa also included
meetings with Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and former President
and Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela.
In the afternoon, she will attend a conference with South African Health
Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and take part in National Women's Day
celebrations.
On the second day of her three-day stay in the country, the top U.S.
diplomat will meet with President Zuma in the coastal city of Durban.
She is expected to ask him to take a tougher stance against Mugabe,
reports said.
Clinton will meet with a host of leaders during her stop-overs in
Nigeria, Angola, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cape
Verde next week.
Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has urged South
Africa to take the leadership role in resolving issues in various
countries of the continent, including neighboring Zimbabwe, where she
wanted Pretoria to press for political and economic reforms. She made
the demand during talks Friday with her South African counterpart, Maite
Nkoana-Mashabane, in the capital city of Pretoria.
Source: RTTNews
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