TEHRAN- Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, who accompanied President Ebrahim Raisi on his trip to Africa, spoke about Iran’s perspective on the continent and the potential for collaboration with African nations.

“Iran’s view on Africa is quite different from that of neo-colonialism or its older version,” Amir Abdollahian told Press TV in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, on Thursday.

The senior diplomat continued, “We aim to empower Africa through technology transfer.”

President Raisi’s visit to Zimbabwe was the final stop in his three-nation tour of Africa, which began with stops in Kenya and Uganda.

Iran and Zimbabwe signed what Raisi’s Zimbabwean counterpart Emmerson Mnangagwa described as a record of 12 agreements on subjects ranging from energy to telecommunications, supporting the foreign minister’s remarks about Iran’s preference for technological cooperation with Africa.

These will enable Zimbabwe to utilize Iranian creativity and technology, and Mnangagwa also mentioned plans to build a tractor plant to promote agricultural automation. 

Along with agreements for research, scientific, and technology initiatives, the two nations inked agreements for collaboration in the fields of energy, agriculture, medicines, and telecommunications.

Iran displayed two domestically produced agricultural and mapping drones during the visit of the Iranian president to Kenya in hopes of facilitating commerce and export to the African nation.

Amir Abdollahian also noted, “Today, several countries, including the United States, China, Turkey, and India, have made investments in Africa, and engage in serious cooperation in various fields.”

“This shows that Africa today is different from Africa in the past. African countries are now not targeted for mine extraction activities only,” he added.

The foreign minister continued his remarks by elaborating on two key points of convergence between Iran and African countries. 

African people and their leaders are now quite sensitive on protecting their independence and this is among commonalities between Iran and African nations, Amir Abdollahian underlined. 

“Another issue of equal importance for Iran and Africa is the U.S. sanctions regime. With Africa’s assistance, we should prevent the U.S. and certain states that still have a colonial mindset from utilizing the deadly tool of sanctions against nations,” Iran’s top diplomat pointed out. 

The comments were in line with those made previously by Raisi and Mnangagwa, who had urged greater dialogue and collaboration across the nations that were equally attacked by the coercive economic measures.