Vietnam-South Africa relations develop comprehensively: Ambassador

Pretoria (VNA) – The relations between Vietnam and South Africa have developed in all fields since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1993, especially in politics, diplomacy, economy-trade, security-defence, science-technology, and education, according to Vietnamese Ambassador to South Africa Vu Van Dung.

He made the statement in a recent interview granted to correspondents of the Vietnam News Agency in Pretoria on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Vietnam-South Africa diplomatic relations.

Regarding politics and diplomacy, the two sides have maintained high-level delegation exchanges and strengthened legal frameworks for comprehensive cooperation.

South Africa shares its viewpoint with Vietnam on the peaceful settlement of disputes in the East Sea based on international law.

In the field of economy, the two countries have closely worked together in the exchange of farm produce, shipbuilding, aquaculture, and fishing.

South Africa is a leading trade partner of Vietnam in Africa with two-way trade increasing five times over the past decade from 189 million USD in 2007 to 920 million USD in 2013 and one billion USD in 2017, he said.

Vietnam and South Africa strive to increase the bilateral trade to 2 billion USD in the coming year, according to the ambassador.
The two nations have also exchanged cooperation orientations in the fields of telecommunication, training, and crime prevention, he said.

A number of agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) have been signed and negotiated to boost cooperation in various realms such as investment protection and promotion, double taxation avoidance, cross-border crime prevention, natural resources, education-training, and forestry, he noted.

As developing countries and members of the Non-Aligned Movement, Vietnam and South Africa actively support each other in the international arena for common peace and development, Dung said.

The two countries advocated each other to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2007-2008 and 2019-2020 tenures (South Africa) and 2008-2009 and 2020-2021 tenures (Vietnam).

As regards security-defence, based on the mutual trust and the annual defence policy dialogue, Vietnam and South Africa have explored numerous opportunities to boost bilateral and multilateral cooperation in specific fields such as logistics, training, sharing experience in peacekeeping activities, and defence industry.

Progresses were also seen in the bilateral cooperation in environment, science-technology, tourism, and education, especially after the two sides signed a tourism cooperation agreement in 2010, a MoU on water resources cooperation in 2010, and a MoU and an action plan on wild animal protection in 2012 and 2013 respectively. The signing of a MoU on tertiary education is under discussion.-VNA