By Tione Andsen
Lilongwe, November 7, Mana: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eisenhower Mkaka has denied that Malawi has being influenced to open an embassy in Jerusalem, Israel.
He made the denial Saturday on arrival from Jerusalem, Israel where he went at the invitation of Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, Gabi Ashkenazi.
Mkaka said Malawi is a sovereign state that makes its own decision without being influenced by any external forces.
He said Israel and USA had no hand in the decision to open a Malawian Embassy in Jerusalem.
The Minister said when the issue was first made in Parliament by the President and Israel was not contacted on the development.
He said it was not the entire Jerusalem which is being contested rather it was eastern Jerusalem where Palestinians claim to be part of their land.
Mkaka said Malawi Embassy would be in western Jerusalem where all three arms of government of Israel are.
“Malawi being party to international conventions, protocols and instruments will always respect them. We will always remain committed to respecting the independence of any state,” he said.
He said Malawi and Israel established their diplomatic relations in 1964 and Israel had an Embassy in Lilongwe which was closed in 1994 after multiparty general elections.
He said the bilateral relations between the two countries have remain cordial all these years and the two have cooperated in a number of areas for the mutual benefit of the people of the two nations.
“We are still puzzled that Israel and Nigeria were mentioned that Malawi will open embassies but surprisingly, Nigeria is not being mentioned but Israel. We don’t understand all this. We are a listening government, we will take on board all your concerns regarding the opening of the embassies,” Mkaka added
He said it was pleasing to note that Israel was one of the countries that supported Malawi’s candidature to Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Luckie Sikwese said every country has a right to solicit support form members states when vying for a seat in an organization.
He said if a country gets more support from the member states shows that it has trust confidence from them.
