Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Quang Hieu. (Photo: VNA)

At the fifth meeting of the Viet Nam-South Africa Intergovernmental Partnership Forum on economic, trade, science, technology and cultural cooperation held online on April 14, Hieu highlighted the growth of Viet Nam-South Africa ties over the past nearly three decades with numerous achievements in important areas, and noted that South Africa is currently Viet Nam's largest trade partner in Africa.

For her part, South African Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Candith Mashego-Dlamini underlined the important position of Viet Nam in South Africa’s external policy for Asia and Southeast Asia in particular, and welcomed the sound progress in Viet Nam- South Africa relations as well as the close coordination at multilateral forums.

Participants reviewed the cooperation outcomes between Viet Nam and South Africa after the fourth meeting of the forum in the areas of politics, diplomacy, trade, investment, agriculture, defence, security, education, training, science, technology, justice, tourism and environment, as well as partnership among localities. They also sought specific measures to enhance efficiency and further deepen the already sound partnership between the two countries.

Both sides agreed to maintain high-level meetings and delegation exchanges, strengthen mutual support at regional and international forums, promote the efficiency of bilateral cooperation mechanisms, and further boost economic cooperation to match the good bilateral political relations and the scales of the two economies.

They will coordinate closely to expand the scale and structure of trade while increasing cooperation in industry, agriculture, investment and tourism. Viet Nam and South Africa underscored the significance of stronger partnership in defence, security, justice, environment, science-technology, education and training, and shared interest to expand cooperation to areas of each other’s demand and strength such as construction, information, communications and labour.

The two sides also agreed on measures to effectively implement signed agreements and to speed up the process of negotiations and signing of important cooperation deals, and proposed ideas to remove obstacles and difficulties in bilateral cooperation.

Concluding the meeting, the two sides concurred to organise the next meeting of the forum in South Africa in 2024.