Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the meeting on November 21 in Johannesburg. — VNA/VNS Photo

JOHANNESBURG — Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa agreed to elevate the bilateral ties to a Strategic Partnership during their meeting in Johannesburg on November 21, within the framework of the former’s working trip to attend the G20 Summit and bilateral activities in South Africa.

President Ramaphosa thanked PM Chính and a high-level Vietnamese delegation for attending the G20 Summit, showing Việt Nam’s spirit of solidarity and active support for South Africa. He affirmed that South Africa always considers Việt Nam a close traditional friend and a key partner in Asia.

PM Chính congratulated the South African President on the country’s remarkable development and its increasingly prominent role and standing on the international stage. Thanking President Ramaphosa for inviting Việt Nam to participate in the G20 Summit, the Premier expressed his confidence that, with South Africa’s role, standing, and experience, the summit will be successful, promoting the participation of all countries, including developing nations, in global governance for peace, cooperation, stability, and development.

The two leaders agreed to instruct relevant agencies to soon develop an action plan for implementing the newly-established relationship framework, concretising the content of the Joint Statement on the establishment of the Strategic Partnership, with the aim of creating breakthroughs and making Việt Nam–South Africa relations a model of cooperation among Global South countries.

The two sides also reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen economic, trade, and investment cooperation, viewing it as a key focus of bilateral collaboration. They agreed to promptly negotiate an agreement and establish a working group to promote market access for each other’s goods and products, with the goal of raising bilateral trade turnover to four–five billion US dollars within the next two–three years.

PM Chính proposed that the two sides upgrade the Inter-governmental Committee mechanism from the deputy-foreign-minister to the foreign-minister level.

He also asked South Africa to soon officially launch negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), thereby creating the best possible conditions for businesses of both countries to expand cooperation and investment, particularly in infrastructure, green economy, digital economy, telecommunications, manufacture, agricultural processing, energy, electric vehicle production, and the Halal industry.

He further called for strengthened ties in defence and security, as well as emerging fields such as science–technology, innovation, and artificial intelligence. The PM encouraged South Africa to facilitate Vietnamese enterprises' participation in local 5G projects and digital transformation initiatives.

Cooperation in tourism, education–training, labour, sports, culture, and people-to-people exchanges should also be stepped up, PM Chính added.

The two leaders agreed to continue negotiations with a view to soon signing additional important cooperation documents that will provide legal and institutional frameworks for bilateral relations, including agreements on the avoidance of double taxation, visa exemptions for holders of ordinary passports, and cooperation in crime prevention and combat.

Discussing regional and international issues of mutual concern, PM Chính and President Ramaphosa agreed that the two countries will enhance coordination and support each other more actively at multilateral forums, particularly within the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Group of 77 (G77), and in contributing to the success of the G20 Summit.

President Ramaphosa expressed his satisfaction that in a short period since his recent visit to Việt Nam, both sides have actively negotiated and reached consensus on a joint statement on upgrading bilateral ties to a Strategic Partnership, as well as an agreement on agricultural cooperation – an area that has long been under discussion.

He affirmed that South African authorities will work closely with their Vietnamese counterparts to ensure the swift realisation of the issues agreed upon by the two countries’ high-ranking leaders.

PM Chính emphasised that Việt Nam and South Africa had stood side by side throughout their struggles for national independence and for human rights, and that today, the two countries will continue to accompany each other in national construction and development, in the spirit of trust, comradeship, and fraternity.

Concluding their meeting, the two leaders agreed on the joint statement on upgrading bilateral relations to a Strategic Partnership and witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on agricultural cooperation between Việt Nam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and South Africa’s Department of Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development. — VNS