Vietnamese Ambassador to South Africa Hoang Sy Cuong. (Photo: VNA) Cuong talked about the achievements and prospects ofbilateral relations in an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency onthe occasion of Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan’s official visit to South Africafrom September 14 to 17 and the 30th anniversary of their diplomaticties.
He noted that the two countries established diplomaticrelations on December 22, 1993, but their ties had begun long before that, withthe historic milestone being the meeting between representatives of theGovernment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (now the Socialist Republic ofVietnam) and the African National Congress party on the sidelines of theBandung Conference in Indonesia in 1955.
The twocountries are currently leading African and Southeast Asian partners of eachother. Amid fast and complex changes in the world, they still share similarviewpoints on security, cooperation and development issues and show theirdetermination to tighten bilateral connections, he went on.
Over the last 30 years, relations between their Parties,States, and peoples have been growing well while multifaceted cooperation hasbeen reinforced and reaped good results, according to Cuong.
In terms of politics, they have maintained trustworthy and closerelations as seen in frequent mutual visits, which have helped increase mutualtrust and experience sharing and set up directions for cooperation betweentheir ministries, sectors, organisations, localities, and businesses. They havealso coordinated with and supported each other at many important internationalforums such as the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the South -South Cooperation.
Vietnam in July 2023 actively promoted the recognition of SouthAfrica as a sectoral dialogue partner of the Association of Southeast AsianNations (ASEAN). South Africa also supported Vietnam to become anobserver of the African Union in 2022. Holding the rotating presidency of BRICS,South Africa invited Vietnam to attend the BRICS Summit on August 24, 2023.
South Africa is the only cooperative partner for developmentof Vietnam in Africa at present, he elaborated.
Noting the growth of economic links, the ambassador saidbilateral trade rose six-fold to nearly 1.3 billion USD in 2022 from 192million USD in 2007. Particularly, their trade stayed stable during the COVID-19pandemic, reflecting the relatively stable demand for each other’s goods andthe complementarity of their export structures. Vietnam mainly exports mobilephones and components, apparel, footwear, and farm produce to South Africawhile importing fruits, timber, minerals, and chemicals from the latter.
The two sides have also paid attention to their partnerships insecurity, defence, peacekeeping operations, wildlife and biodiversitymanagement, science - technology and innovation, higher education, justice,tourism, and wildlife trafficking combat, he added.
Cuong held that to foster bilateral relations, the twocountries should keep increasing delegation exchanges, especially at highlevels; continuing mutual consultation and cooperation at multilateralforums to continually build up political trust; bolstering substantive andeffective cooperation between their ministries, sectors, localities, andenterprises; further intensifying mutual understanding between the two peoples,especially the young; and paying due attention to the development of theVietnamese and South African communities in each other’s countries.
They also should select the fields matching their strength and demand to enhance cooperationin such as mining, agriculture, renewable energy, tourism, education -training, trade, logistics, and finance - banking, he said, noting that SouthAfrica with 60 million people is an important gateway to other African markets forVietnam, which in turn with 100 million people is also important to SouthAfrica’s access to other markets in Southeast Asia.
The diplomat also underlined the need to continue improvingthe efficiency of the Inter-Governmental Partnership Forum, the Joint TradeCommittee, and other specialised cooperation mechanisms between the twocountries. Particularly, they should make reviews to update, negotiate, andsign bilateral cooperation documents in different areas, and ensure the documentsare feasible and practical.
Talking about the coming official visit by Vice President VoThi Anh Xuan, Cuong said the trip, concurrent with a ceremony marking 30 years ofbilateral diplomatic ties, holds great significance as it is expected to helpfurther intensify the traditional friendship and create more momentum for bothsides to foster substantive and effective cooperation./.
VNA
