Portugal: South Africa foreign minister in two-day visit

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Portugal: South Africa foreign minister in two-day visit

8:52 CAT | 18 May 2023

File photo: GCIS

The head of South Africa’s diplomatic service will visit Portugal from Thursday to discuss international and regional issues of “common interest” and to prepare for the visit of the Portuguese president to the country, the South African government announced on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports, South South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation Director-General Zane Dangor, told lawmakers in a virtual meeting on Wednesday that Naledi Pandor “will meet her Ukrainian counterpart in Portugal in the coming days to discuss the African initiative [to try and broker a cease-fire in Russia’s war with Ukraine ]”.

READ: African presidents plan Moscow, Kyiv peace mission next month

Lusa reports that the head of South Africa’s diplomatic service will visit Portugal from Thursday to discuss international and regional issues of “common interest” and to prepare for the visit of the Portuguese president to the country, the South African government announced on Wednesday.

The visit by South Africa’s minister for international relations and cooperation, Naledi Pandor, to Portugal, from 18 to 19 May, will take place at the invitation of her counterpart Joao Gomes Cravinho, according to a statement from the South African government to which Lusa had access.

“On May 19, ministers Pandor and Cravinho will hold bilateral talks, focusing on preparations for the upcoming state visit of president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to South Africa,” it noted.

“The meeting will also discuss bilateral relations between the two countries, multilateral cooperation, as well as international and regional issues of common interest,” it noted.

The head of South Africa’s diplomacy will conclude her two-day visit to Portugal “with a courtesy visit” to the president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa,” noted the statement from the South African government.

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Pretoria noted that bilateral relations between Portugal and South Africa “remain strong,” adding that the two countries cooperate in several sectors, including “basic and higher education, science and technology, defence, as well as trade and investment”.

In terms of trade relations, Pretoria indicated that South African exports in 2021 reached approximately 2.8 billion rand (€134.3 million). Imports from Portugal amounted to about 4.6 billion rand (€220.6 million) in the same year.

“There are 500,000 South Africans of Portuguese descent and around 200,000 Portuguese who live in South Africa,” he said.

Still in Lisbon, minister Pandor will have a meeting with the South Africa-Portugal Chamber of Commerce on Thursday evening, according to the statement.

“The mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Manuel Félix Moedas, is expected to pay a courtesy call on minister Pandor,” the South African government stressed.

In February 2020, the former minister of state and foreign affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, visited South Africa, where he held meetings with Naledi Pandor in Pretoria, the country’s capital, to prepare for the visit of Marcelo de Rebelo de Sousa and the prime minister, António Costa, to the African country on the occasion of the celebration of June 10 (Portugal’s national day), which did not take place due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In June last year, the two countries concluded an agreement of understanding in several areas of cooperation, as part of the seventh session of bilateral consultations, held in the Portuguese capital.

Source: Lusa