By Kudzaishe Chimonera
The United States has denied that a recently discussed memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Zimbabwe was connected to critical minerals, saying the proposed agreement focused solely on health cooperation.
A US official told 263chat that technical teams from both governments had been negotiating the legally non-binding MOU for several weeks and had made significant progress.
“There were numerous tracked changes in the document, and no policy or political concerns were relayed to us. The government then notified us it was ceasing negotiations without stating why.” the official said
The official stressed that the draft agreement did not contain any provisions relating to critical minerals — either explicitly or implicitly — and was centred entirely on public health.
“This MOU is, and has always been, about the health of the Zimbabwean people and gradually transitioning that responsibility to the Zimbabwean government,” the official said.
According to the US, the proposed deal followed standard global practice and would have allowed for the collection and analysis of anonymous, aggregated health data.
Such data, the official said, is used to target assistance, measure programme effectiveness and ensure coordinated responses to disease outbreaks.
“In other words, the same kind of data we’ve been sharing since PEPFAR began in 2006,” the official added, referring to the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
