Vietnamese Ambassador to South Africa Hoang Van Loi and his spouse pose for a photo with President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa (centre) (Photo: VNA) Pretoria (VNA) - President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa expressed a wish tofortify ties with Vietnam while receiving the credentials of newly-appointedVietnamese Ambassador Hoang Van Loi on November 19.
Loi, inturn, said it was an honour to serve in South Africa, a land of potential that playsan increasingly important role in the region and the world.
He pledged todo his utmost to help enhance solidarity and friendship between the two peoples,the partnership for cooperation and development established in 2004 between thetwo countries, and ties between Africa and ASEAN.
He took theoccasion to convey the regard of Party General Secretary and State PresidentNguyen Phu Trong to the South African leader.
Talking tothe press after the ceremony, the ambassador said the two sides support eachother at international forums, particularly with both being non-permanentmembers of the UN Security Council in 2020.
The two haveso far established key cooperation mechanisms, such as an inter-governmentalpartner forum, a commercial joint committee, and a defence dialogue programme.
SouthAfrica is currently Vietnam’s largest importer in Africa. Despite COVID-19,trade between the two countries hit 1.22 billion USD in the first 10 months of2020, an increase of 22 percent year-on-year. The figure is expected to hit 1.4billion USD for the year as a whole./.