Belarusian Leader Arrives in Zimbabwe, Expected to Sign Several Trade Agreements With MnangagwaBelarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko arrived in Harare on Thursday to a hero’s welcome. He was met at the airport by Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and thousands of ruling ZanuPF party supporters. The two leaders did not talk to the press, but Zimbabwean deputy information minister, Kindness Paradza, told VOA Zimbabwe Service that the visit is significant. “We are so happy and delighted that President Lukashenko is visiting Zimbabwe on a state visit and this shows Zimbabwe has friends as far as the East close to Russia and we are happy that this is his first to Africa.” Lukashenko regarded by many analysts as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally, has backed Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Paradza said on Tuesday that Mr. Lukashenko will visit the North Korean built National Heroes Acre in Harare before signing some trade agreements with President Mnangagwa. On Wednesday, the two leaders are expected to fly to the resort town of Victoria Falls, bordering Zambia to the north. Harare says Belarus is key in the government’s agriculture mechanization program as it is providing tractors and combine harvesters among other things. Zimbabwe has received most of the agriculture equipment via AFTRADE DMCC, a company tasked with the “implementation of comprehensive projects pertaining the delivery of full cycle of machinery and equipment, manufactured in the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation." President Mnangagwa’s government has also expressed an interest in importing buses from Belarus. Reacting to the visit, Zimbabwe’s former finance minister and opposition Citizens Coalition for Change vice president, Tendai Biti, urged Harare to remain “neutral” in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Biti warned that Harare risks further isolation by the West if it is perceived as a “Russia’s pawn in the diplomatic chase game.” However, Paradza refuted allegations that Harare is siding with Minsk, saying, “President Mnangagwa’s mantra is always that we are a friend to all, and an enemy to none.” Zimbabwe last year was among 35 countries that included China, India, Iran, South Africa, Angola and Mozambique that abstained from voting against Russia at the United nations General Assembly. Defending the decision in a statement, Zimbabwe’S then acting foreign Affairs Minister, Amon Murwira, said, "The situation in Ukraine is a very complex one and is deeply-rooted in the history and geopolitics of that region. Zimbabwe believes that it is the duty of the international community not to make that situation more complex than it already is … Unilateral sanctions have never worked to resolve any situation. On the contrary, sanctions unleash untold humanitarian crises and the suffering of ordinary people." In his weekly column published in the state-leaning Sunday Mail newspaper, President Mnangagwa took a swipe at NATO, “Zimbabwe, itself already a victim of western unilateralism, is in the full glare of all these global headwinds. Against NATO’s provocative eastward expansion in Europe, and Russian Federation’s robust response to that threat of encirclement by NATO, a new situation has arisen which requires that we re-map the world with a view to finding our own place and securing our interests.” Washington and its western allies have imposed sanctions on Putin, Mnangagwa and Lukashenko for alleged human rights violations. Minsk and Harare established diplomatic relations three decades ago and ties were strengthened when Mr. Mnangagwa visited Minsk in 2015 as the late President Robert Mugabe’s vice president and in 2019 after he became the leader of the southern African nation in a defacto military coup.