South Africa keen to advance all-around ties with Vietnam

Talks were held between Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan and her South African counterpart Paul Mashatile on December 14 in Hanoi following a welcome ceremony for the latter.

During the course of talks, VP Xuan warmly welcomed Mashatile and his wife along with the high-ranking South African delegation on an official visit to the country which comes only three months since the South Africa trip taken by the former in September.

​The visit is also one of the important external affairs activities which practically celebrates the 30th anniversary of both nations’ diplomatic relations.

VP Xuan affirmed that the nation always values the traditional friendship with South Africa which originated from the co-operative relationship between the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPC) and the African National Congress (ANC) from the 1960s.

Over recent years, comprehensive co-operative relations between the two countries have been continuously nurtured and developed. Indeed, South Africa is currently the nation’s first and only "Partner for cooperation and development" in Africa.

The Vietnamese VP hailed the tremendous achievements that the Government and people of South Africa have recorded in recent times in terms of political stability, socio-economic development, as well as strengthening their position in the international arena.

She congratulated South Africa on successfully organising the 15th BRICS Summit which has contributed to peace and development in the region and the wider world.

In response, Mashatile expressed his joy at visiting Vietnam for the first time and meeting VP Xuan again and emphasized that the trip by the South African high-level delegation is a continuation of the strong results achieved following VP Xuan's visit to South Africa in September.

The South African Deputy President outlined that the two countries still boast a lot of potential and room for broader co-operation, especially in the fields of economics and trade.

He therefore expects the Vietnamese side to open its market to some of his nation’s key products, especially agricultural ones, and to invest in the fields of agricultural product processing, electric vehicles, and battery manufacturing in South Africa.

The two leaders jointly reviewed the results of bilateral ties over recent times, as well as exchanging views and agreed on specific collaboration directions moving forward.

They consented to further augment linkages on channels of Party diplomacy, State diplomacy, and citizen diplomacy. This is along with strengthening the exchange of delegations at all levels, especially high-level ones, as well as between ministries, departments, localities, and businesses so as to consolidate political trust and create a driving force for closer bilateral ties.

Both sides are set to effectively deploy bilateral co-operation mechanisms, accelerate the organization of the sixth Meeting of the Vietnam - South Africa Intergovernmental Partnership Forum and the Joint Trade Committee in 2024.

They were therefore pleased to see that in recent times, the two countries have closely worked together and supported each other at multilateral forums, as well as acting as a bridge to beef up ties with regional organizations such as ASEAN and the African Union.

The South African Deputy President thanked the Vietnamese side for supporting his country’s bid to become a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN in July, while looking forward to further support in strengthening the partnership with the bloc, going on to affirm his country’s readiness to help the nation to augment co-operation with the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).

Both host and guest highly appreciated the positive results recorded in economic co-operation between the two countries. Indeed,  Xuan proposed that the two sides work to co-ordinate efforts to research and speed up negotiations in order to establish bilateral trade and investment frameworks such as the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement and the Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, as well as a co-operation agreement in the field of minerals.

The two sides affirmed their determination to step up economic, trade, and investment links to commensurate with the market size of nearly 100 million people in Vietnam and 60 million people in South Africa, thereby striving to elevate bilateral trade turnover to reach US$2 billion in the near future.

They also underlined the need to encourage investment in each other's markets in potential fields such as developing electric vehicles, electric vehicle batteries, pharmaceuticals, and industrial equipment. This will be done whilst boosting co-operation in the fields of minerals, natural resources, the environment, and wildlife conservation.

In the context that ensuring food security has become an urgent global issue, the two sides concurred to promote and replicate trilateral and multilateral agricultural co-operation models within the South-South framework.

They will therefore focus on research and ask a number of African countries to join in implementing agricultural co-operation according to this model.

​The two sides also consented to ramp up ties in both national security and defence, as well as to swiftly organise the third Defense Policy Dialogue and enhance people-to-people exchanges.

Based on the initial results of educational collaboration, the two sides will further increase delegation exchange activities between higher education institutions, student exchanges, whilst sharing experience and teaching documents in the areas of both sides’ strength. This will be done while actively building programmes to introduce and promote culture and create favourable entry conditions for their people.

During the course of talks, the two leaders also briefed each other on the situation in their respective country and compared notes relating to a number of international and regional issues of shared concern.

At the end of the talks, VP Xuan and her South African counterpart witnessed the handing over of a Memorandum of Understanding on higher education co-operation between the two countries.