The talks between Vietnamese Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan and Deputy President of South Africa Paul Mashatile in Hanoi on December 14 (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan held talks with DeputyPresident of South Africa Paul Mashatile in Hanoi on December 14, who is on an official visit to Vietnam from December 12-15.

ඣ VicePresident Xuan welcomed the South African Deputy President’s visit on the occasionof the 30th anniversary of Vietnam-South Africa diplomatic ties.

Vietnam always values traditionalfriendship with South Africa, stemming from the cooperative relationshipbetween the Communist Party of Vietnam and the African National Congress (ANC)since the 1960s, she said, adding that all-around cooperation between the twocountries has kept growing over the past years. At present, South Africa is thefirst and only “Partner for Cooperation and Development" of Vietnam inAfrica.

Mashatile,for his part, said his visit follows the recent trip to South Africa by Vice President Xuan inSeptember. It is to further propel bilateral ties across economy, trade,education-training, biodiversity conservation and environment, contributing togenerating new momentum for the multifaceted cooperative ties between the twocountries.

As there remains untappedpotential of bilateral cooperation, especially in economy and trade, he wishedthat Vietnam would open its market to goods of South Africa's strengths, especiallyagricultural products and agro-processing, electric vehicles and batteries forelectric cars.

Both sides agreed to further step up collaboration through theParty, State and people-to-people diplomacy channels; increase the exchange ofdelegations at all levels, as well as between ministries, agencies, localitiesand businesses to consolidate political trust, create a driving force forbilateral ties, effectively realise bilateral cooperation mechanisms and acceleratethe organisation of the sixth meeting of the Vietnam-South AfricaInter-Governmental Partnership Forum and another meeting of the Joint TradeCommittee next year.

The guest thanked Vietnam for supporting South Africa’s bid tobecome a Sectoral Dialogue Partner of ASEAN in July. He hoped that Vietnam woul support enhancing its partnership with ASEAN, affirming readiness to assistVietnam in strengthening cooperation with the Southern African Customs Union.

♓ In reply, Xuan suggested both sides step up negotiations on establishingframeworks for bilateral trade and investment cooperation, such as thecomprehensive economic cooperation agreement, investment promotion andprotection agreement, and mining cooperation agreement.

Vietnamese Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan and Deputy President of South Africa Paul Mashatile witness the exchange of an MoU on cooperation in tertiary education after their talks in Hanoi on December 14. (Photo: VNA)

The two sides affirmed their determination to lift two-way trade2 billion USD in the coming time and encouraged investments in each other'smarket in various potential areas such as electric vehicles and theirbatteries, pharmaceuticals, industrial equipment, mining, natural resources andenvironment, and wildlife conservation.

They agreed to spread agricultural cooperation models involvingthree or more parties within the South-South framework, explore and propose theinvolvement of other African nations to launch the models.

Host and guest promised to enhance coordination in nationaldefence-security, soon hold the third defence policy dialogue, and step uppeople-to-people exchange.

On the back of the initial results of education cooperation,they aimed to further facilitate the exchange of students in tertiary establishments,share experience and teaching materials in areas of mutual strength, and buildprogrammes to popularise culture, thus creating favourable conditions for theentry of citizens from both countries.

The two leaders also briefed eachother about the situation of each country and discussed global and regionalissues of shared concern.

🥀 At the talks, they witnessedthe signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in tertiaryeducation between the two governments./.