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Powell Praises Mbeki's Leadership
PRETORIA, May 24 (News Agencies) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met with South African President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria Thursday and gave a public vote of confidence in the leadership of the much-criticized head of state.
"I admire the leadership he has given to South Africa and to the region," Powell told a press briefing after the 45-minute talks at government headquarters, which took place immediately after the secretary of state's arrival Thursday evening from Mali on the second leg of a four-nation African tour.
Mbeki confirmed he would visit Washington next month for talks with President George W. Bush.
The South African president has come under criticism internationally for his quiet diplomacy toward neighboring Zimbabwe, where the economy is in free-fall amid political tension and often violent invasions of farms and businesses and for his questioning of the link between HIV and AIDS.
At home, he is under fire for his isolated style of leadership, with the respected weekly Mail and Guardian declaring last month that his rule had been "disastrous".
Powell and Mbeki between them said they had discussed Zimbabwe, the wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, the situation in the Middle East, and moves toward regional integration.
"Increasingly we see that regional problems will have to be dealt with by regional organizations and leaders acting in a regional fashion," Powell said.
"In this particular reason I applaud his initiative for an African renaissance, which in the first instance has Africans coming together to deal with their problems to find solutions to those problems."
He added that there had been no need to discuss the AIDS pandemic with Mbeki: "He understands the nature of the problem, how it affects his country and the whole region."
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP after the briefing however that the United States remained worried that Mbeki was not personally involved in the fight against AIDS.
Africa is the continent worst hit by the acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome, home to 25.3 million of the 36.1 million people infected with the disease worldwide, according to year-end statistics from 2000. South Africa has the highest number of cases - 4.7 million, or one in nine of the population.
"It is important for the government leadership to be actively involved in the HIV/AIDS issue," the official said.
"When you do see political leadership tackle this particular problem, the awareness side and prevention side makes a difference."
Andrew Natsios, of the U.S. Agency for International Development, commented: "President Thabo Mbeki has very unorthodox views on AIDS, but his ministry of health has been very cooperative in fighting the problem."
Mbeki told the briefing that, "we would like to confirm and reaffirm the warm relations between the United States and South Africa."
Bush, as a candidate, declared in February last year that "While Africa may be important, it doesn't fit into the national strategic interests," but Mbeki, who visited him in Texas three months later, said: "We spent quite a bit of time discussing the challenges facing the African continent and agreed that if he became president we would need to be in contact."
"The U.S. must learn its strengths in helping us to find a solution to these problems," he added.
Powell, who visited South Africa for the inauguration of Nelson Mandela in 1994, declared it was good to be back.
"I have admired the progress South Africa has made over those years ... economic progress ... a new nation, a new system, and entering the 21st century," he said.
Mbeki, for his part, characterized Powell as "an old friend of our people".
Powell is due on Friday to visit an AIDS project in the Johannesburg township of Soweto and deliver a speech at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand before flying on to Kenya on Saturday. His last stop will be in Uganda.
"I am moved by the fact that I am the first African-American secretary of state to visit Africa," Powell said en route to Bamako. "There is an emotional connection, and I always feel it when I am in Africa."
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