Pretoria - President Cyril Ramaphosa has met a high-level Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Sun Chunlan in Cape Town as the two nations ramp up widespread efforts to elevate political, defence and economic, and people-to-people ties in the post-Covid-19 pandemic era.
The Chinese delegation, which met Ramaphosa at Tuynhuys, included Chinese Ambassador to South Africa, Chen Xiaodong.
Sun, an influential Beijing official, who is Vice Premier of the State Council, is in South Africa for the 3rd SA-China High Level People-to-People Exchange Mechanism (PPEM) meeting, which she co-chaired with Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa.
During the meeting with Sun, President Ramaphosa conveyed greetings and good wishes to Chinese President Xi Jinping and expressed gratitude to China for the support extended to South Africa at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sun conveyed Xi's “warm greetings and good wishes” to Ramaphosa and the people of South Africa. She said that China and South Africa share “a special friendship of comradeship plus brotherhood”.
She highlighted that with the close contact between the two heads of State, and the extensive bilateral relations, the China-South Africa comprehensive strategic partnership enjoys a strong momentum of development, with deepening political mutual trust, fruitful practical cooperation, productive people-to-people exchanges and sound communication and cooperation at a multilateral level.
“China always views its relations with South Africa from a strategic and long-term perspective, and is ready to work with South Africa to follow the important guidance of consensus reached by the two heads of State, continue to firmly support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns, and deepen experience-sharing on governance and development,” she said.
“The Chinese government has been optimising epidemic prevention and control measures and actively creating conditions for facilitating people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries.
“China is ready to take the opportunity of celebrating the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties with South Africa to expand face-to-face exchanges in various fields and at various levels and strengthen cooperation with South Africa in education, science and technology, health, culture, tourism and sports,” said Sun.
She said China fully supports South Africa's BRICS chairship and added that her nation is ready to further enhance cultural exchanges and mutual learning among BRICS countries so as to consolidate popular support for the BRICS cooperation, which incorporates Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
On Thursday evening, Sun chaired the China-South Africa High-Level People-to-People Exchange Mechanism meeting with Mthethwa. The two senior officials presided over the signing of three cooperation agreements in the fields of education, science and technology, and health between Beijing and Pretoria.
The 3rd PPEM meeting takes place following the two State visits on July 14 and September 2 in 2018 where President Ramaphosa and President Xi strengthened bilateral ties between the two countries, particularly the people-to-people exchanges.
Last month, the Chinese Embassy in Pretoria revealed that trade volumes between South Africa and China in 2022 reached $56.7 billion, up by 5% “against headwinds” and reached a record high in recent years.
China has been South Africa’s largest trading partner for 14 years in a row, and South Africa has been China’s largest trading partner in Africa for 13 years in a row.
“At the 5th China International Import Expo, South African companies delivered a great performance. They achieved an intended turnover of nearly $100 million, which is 1.5 times over last year,” Ambassador Chen remarked last month at an event marking the Chinese New Year.
“The investment co-operation between our two sides has also shown great momentum. Chinese companies have invested over $25 billion in South Africa, and hundreds of Chinese firms took part in South Africa’s 4th Investment Conference,” he said at the time.
On Thursday, Minister Nathi Mthethwa said the conspicuous failure of the current global institutions to resolve conflicts fairly, justly and equitably in order to safeguard the interests of all nations had brought despair to millions of people, but it's mechanisms like BRICS and forums like the PPEM providing the solutions in an era punctuated with misery and gloom.
“Initiatives such as BRICS and such forums as PPEM give hope to the people of the Global South. The PPEM endeavour is rooted in people-to-people relations as the cornerstone of any cooperation and achievements.
“This form of relations, otherwise known as “soft diplomacy’’ puts the people at the centre of development. It speaks to them, their needs and foster mutual understanding and friendship. We have seen how resilient our people are in the face of adversity, and we will do well to harness that resilience and ingenuity to better manage our PPEM programme,” said Mthethwa.
“Your Excellency, the meeting today (Sunday) is important in that it gives us an opportunity to reflect on the journey we have travelled since 2017, the achievements, the challenges and the opening of new frontiers and opportunities as we continue to develop and grow our partnership,” he said.
IOL