Vietnamese Ambassador Vu Van Dung (first, right), the ambassadors of Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, and Anil Sooklal – Deputy Director General for Asia and the Middle East at South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (centre) pose for a photo at the ceremony (Photo: VNA) Pretoria (VNA) – A ceremony was heldin Pretoria on November 19 to mark the 25th founding anniversary of SouthAfrica’s diplomatic ties with Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.
The event was attended by Anil Sooklal – DeputyDirector General for Asia and the Middle East at South Africa’s Department ofInternational Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), the ambassadors of the fourSoutheast Asian nations and diplomats of other countries.
Opening the ceremony, Sindiswa Mququ, directorfor South Asia – Central Asia and Southeast Asia at the DIRCO’s Asia and theMiddle East division, reviewed milestones in her country’s diplomatic ties withthe four nations. She said the relations, established in 1993, have developed constantlyover the last 25 years, with all the four Southeast Asian countries being keyeconomic and trading partners of South Africa.
Meanwhile, Anil Sooklal said political tiesbetween South Africa and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) are close, but bilateral economic links still have room to grow. SouthAfrica needs to make use of the embassies of the seven most dynamic ASEANnations in the country to promote not only bilateral relations but alsointer-regional cooperation, particularly between the Southern AfricanDevelopment Community and ASEAN.
In his speech, Vietnamese Ambassador Vu Van Dungappreciated the celebration, noting it marked a new development stage in thefive countries’ connections.
He said Vietnam and South Africa boast decadesof friendship, beginning with the meeting between representatives of theirnational liberation movements at the Bandung Conference in Indonesia in 1955and bilateral ties have expanded in all spheres over the last 25 years.
Dung elaborated they have stepped up state-to-state,party-to-party and people-to-people diplomacy and perfected the legal frameworkfor cooperation. South Africa is currently the top African trade partner ofVietnam. Two-way trade increased five-fold from 189 million USD in 2007 to 1billion USD in 2017, and is expected to hit 2 billion USD in the next fiveyears.
Based on mutual trust and the defence policydialogue, the two sides have created many chances to strengthen cooperation,including sharing experience in peacekeeping operations and defence industry,and coordinating in crime fighting and criminal extradition.
Much progress has also been attained in theircooperation in environment, science, technology, tourism and education, he noted,adding that Vietnam and South Africa welcome some 4,000 tourists from eachother each year and the number is still rising.
The ambassador voiced his belief that with bothsides’ determination and efforts, their cooperation will keep flourishing inall fields for the sake of peace and development in their respective regionsand the world.-VNA
VNA
