President Cyril Ramaphosa
Indian PM Narendra Modi and President Cyril Ramaphosa have agreed that considerable scope exists for India and South Africa to grow their bilateral economic relationship.
“To ensure concrete deliverables Modi and I concluded this morning a three-year Strategic Programme of Cooperation aimed at deepening the bilateral engagement between India and South Africa and ensuring that a result-oriented partnership benefits the people of both countries.
“We have instructed our Ministers and officials to start immediate implementation of this programme to take our bilateral relationship to a new level,” Ramaphosa stated following “fruitful talks” with a delegation from India, included Modi.
While trade between the two countries has increased significantly over the last few years – India is currently South Africa’s second largest trading partner in Asia – there are a number of areas of future cooperation, Ramaphosa said.
The President further stated that areas for future cooperation include agroprocessed goods, defence procurement, mining equipment and technology and cooperation in the financial services sector
“During our talks, we also reviewed the existing cordial bilateral relations between South Africa and India, as well as the close cooperation within a number of multilateral groupings including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa; India–Brazil–South Africa; the Indian Ocean Rim Association; and the Group of 20,” he added.