MOZAMBIQUE'S WIDENING FOREIGN POLICY

In: The world today, Band 40, Heft 2, S. 22-28

Abstract

PARADOXICALLY, IN A PERIOD WHEN SO MUCH WESTERN POLICY TOWARDS THE THIRD WORLD APPEARS TO BE FORMULATED ON A MODEL OF SIMPLE IDEOLOGICAL POLARITY, MOZAMBIQUE, ORIGINALLY A NEO-CONSERVATIVE BETE ROUGE OF THE DEEPEST HUE, HAS BEEN DEVELOPING AN INCREASINGLY BROAD AND PRAGMATIC NETWORK OF FOREIGN RELATIONS. DESPITE A CONTINUING DECLARATORY COMMITMENT TO THE SOVIET BLOC IN THE MAIN ISSUE AREAS OF EAST- WEST CONFRONTATION, PRESIDENT SAMORA MACHEL AND HIS FOREIGN MINISTER, JOAQUIM CHISSANO, HAVE SHOWN AN EVIDENT INTEREST IN MOVING THE AVOWEDLY MARXIST-LENINIST FRELIMO1 GOVERNMENT TOWARDS CLOSER POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS WITH THE WEST. THIS HAS EXTENDED EVEN TO THE MILITARY SPHERE WITH PORTUGAL, A NATO MEMBER, UNDERTAKING WIDE COMMITMENTS IN THE TRAINING AND EQUIPPING OF THE MOZAMBICAN ARMY. THE TOUR OF WEST EUROPEAN CAPITALS UNDERTAKEN BY MACHEL, CHISSANO AND OTHER POLITBURO MEMBERS IN OCTOBER 1983, HAS MOST RECENTLY CONFIRMED THIS REORIENTATION.