Foreign Affairs Minister Mulambo Haimbe has opened Zambia's week at the 81st UN General Assembly with a simple brief — "our diplomacy must help to grow Zambia" — and a stack of paper to prove it, signing joint communiqués establishing diplomatic relations with Uruguay and Vanuatu on the margins of the general debate.

Haimbe is representing President Hichilema at the session, which runs from 22 to 28 September under the theme "Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that Delivers for All". The delegation includes Health Minister Professor Roma Chilengi and senior officials, according to the Zambian mission in New York. The agenda: the Grow Zambia Agenda, support for a national peace architecture, and Zambia's candidacy for the Human Rights Council for 2027–2029 — a bid the minister will anchor in a national statement on behalf of the President on Monday, 28 September.

Zambia also sits as deputy chair of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group this week, and is working the Group of 77 and China corridor on the Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact and the Seville Commitment on development finance.

Outside the headquarters, a parallel diplomacy is under way. Zambian diaspora groups said they would demonstrate on Tuesday and Wednesday over the disputed 13 August election and the killing of former minister Mutotwe Kafwaya, and called for the restoration of cancelled passports belonging to figures including Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba, MPs Binwell Mpundu and Emmanuel Jay Jay Banda, Lillian Mutambo and academic Dr Sishuwa Sishuwa. Organiser Augustine Mukoka set out the demands on Channel Africa.

Haimbe has pushed back directly, telling Diamond TV on Wednesday that claims of anti-Zambia protests at the UN headquarters were not accurate. Organisers insist the demonstrations took place as advertised. Between the two accounts sits the central tension of Zambia's week in New York: a government presenting a record it calls constitutional and investor-ready, and a diaspora determined to attach an asterisk to it.

Confirmed vs. alleged

Confirmed: The delegation, the session dates and theme, the communiqués with Uruguay and Vanuatu, the Human Rights Council candidacy and the 28 September national statement are all confirmed by the Zambian mission and the foreign ministry.

Alleged / contested: The scale — and, per the minister, the fact — of protests outside the headquarters is disputed. Diaspora organisers say they demonstrated on Tuesday and Wednesday; Haimbe refutes the claim.

Sources: Zambia UN Mission press statement (20 Sep 2026); Lusaka Times, "'Our diplomacy must help to grow Zambia,' Haimbe tells New York" (23 Sep 2026); Diamond TV interview with Minister Haimbe (23 Sep 2026); Lusaka Times, "Zambian diaspora groups to protest at UN" (22 Sep 2026); Channel Africa.

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