Pretoria (VNA) – A delegation from theNational Assembly (NA) Committee for External Relations led by its deputy headLe Anh Tuan made a working trip to South Africa from September 22-28.

At a working session in Cape Town with Chairman of the InternationalRelations Committee at the parliament of South Africa Madala Louis DavidNtombel, Tuan briefed the host on the organisation and operation of theVietnamese NA, adding that one of the purposes of his visit is to supervise the enforcement of policies and laws on diplomatic ranks and Vietnamese representative missions abroad. 

Highlighting the similarities in the history of Vietnam andSouth Africa, Ntombela said that Vietnam was a great source of encouragement for SouthAfrica during its struggle for national independence.

He said that South Africa has 116 embassies in the world, expressing hope to learn from Vietnam in supervising policy and lawimplementation.

At the meeting, South African legislators proposed that the two countriesshould develop their economic partnership to match the potential of bilateral cooperation, along with promoting people-to-people exchange.

Receiving the Vietnamese NA delegation, Cedric ThomasFrolick, Chairman for Committees, Oversight and ICT at the South Africanparliament expressed impression at Vietnam’s economic achievements. He affirmedthat South Africa wishes to develop relations with Southeast Asian countries,especially Vietnam. South Africa wants to send a delegation of parliamentariansto Vietnam to exchange and learn from the country’s experience, he said.

Tuan, who is President of the Vietnam-South AfricaFriendship Parliamentarians’ Group, said that the two sides should strengthenthe exchange among parliamentarians, suggesting that South Africa should form asimilar friendship group. Frolick said that the South African side willconsider this idea.

Meeting Deputy Minister of International Relations andCooperation Alvin Botes in Pretoria, Tuan said that South Africa is the onlypartner for cooperation and development of Vietnam in Africa, reflecting Vietnam’s appreciation and attention to ties with South Africa.

He thanked the South African Government for its support of Vietnam at multilateralforums such as the UN, and the country’s assistance for Vietnam instrengthening cooperation with the African Union as well as other Africancountries.

He affirmed that Vietnam is willing to support South Africa in developingrelations with ASEAN countries, and help the South African parliament to strengthencooperation with the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA).

Tuan said that on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic relations in 2023, Vietnam plans toorganise a Vietnam Day in South Africa, the first of its kind to be held in anAfrican country.

For his part, Botes expressed delight at the sounddevelopment of partnership between the two countries in both bilateral andmultilateral aspects. He said that the two sides should work to further promote economic and trade partnership, and called on businesses of both sides to explore collaboration opportunities ineach country, thus further promoting economic diplomacy between the twocountries.

At the meeting, the two sides discussed benefits andopportunities from free trade agreements, South-South cooperation and thecandidacy for UN positions./.