Vice President Võ Thị Ánh Xuân and South African Vice President Paul Mashatile meet with the press after their talks. — VNA/VNS Photo Lâm Khánh

PRETORIA — Vice State President Võ Thị Ánh Xuân held talks with South African Deputy President Paul Mashatile on September 15, within the framework of her official visit to the country.

Xuân spoke highly of South Africa’s leading role in the continent as well as its important contributions to international forums, and congratulated the country on successfully organising the recent BRICS Summit.

For his part, Paul Mashatile welcomed the Vietnamese Vice President’s visit and described it as an important event taking place on the occasion of the two countries celebrating the 30th anniversary of their diplomatic relations (1993 - 2023).

He expressed his impression with Việt Nam’s dynamic development achievements as well as its increasing role and position in Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific, and emphasised that solidarity and mutual supports in the fight for national independence and freedom are important factors for the two countries to promote multi-faceted cooperation in national construction and development.

The two sides spoke highly of the positive developments in cooperative relations between the two countries over the past three decades.

Việt Nam and South Africa have become important partners of each other in Africa and Southeast Asia. South Africa is currently Việt Nam's largest trade partner in Africa, with two-way turnover reaching nearly US$1.3 billion in 2022. Collaboration in defence-security, economic, agricultural investment, culture, education-training and people-to-people exchanges has also made positive progress.

On the same day, Xuân met General Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP) Solly Mapaila and Minister of South African Public Enterprises Pravin Ghordan, cut the ribbon at an inauguration ceremony of the Vietnamese Cultural Space in South Africa, and attended a ceremony to mark the 78th anniversary of Việt Nam's National Day and the 30th anniversary of of the diplomatic relations between Việt Nam and South Africa. — VNS