- Tuesday, April 30, 2024
By: PTI
INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi on Monday (27) met South African President Cyril Ramaphosa here and reviewed the progress made in bilateral ties and reaffirmed the need for further deepening cooperation in areas like trade and investment, food security, defence, pharmaceuticals and digital financial inclusion.
Modi, who is in Germany on a two-day visit from Sunday, met Ramaphosa on the sidelines of the G-7 Summit at Schloss Elmau, the picturesque venue of the summit in southern Germany.
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“Glad to have met President @CyrilRamaphosa in Germany. Our talks covered diverse sectors including economic cooperation, improving connectivity and deepening ties in food processing and FinTech,” Modi tweeted.
Glad to have met President @CyrilRamaphosa in Germany. Our talks covered diverse sectors including economic cooperation, improving connectivity and deepening ties in food processing and FinTech. 🇮🇳 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/dNVQSG5oQq
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 27, 2022
Both leaders reviewed the progress made in bilateral relations between the two countries, particularly following the signing of the Strategic Programme of Cooperation in 2019, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a press release.
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The two leaders expressed satisfaction at the progress achieved in defence, education and agriculture sectors, and reiterated the need for further deepening bilateral cooperation in areas like trade and investment, food security, defence, pharmaceuticals, digital financial inclusion, skill development, insurance, health and people to people contacts, it said.
Both leaders also welcomed the World Trade Organisation agreement reached in June 2022 that supports the production of COVID-19 vaccines in developing countries, the release said. India and South Africa had submitted the first proposal suggesting a waiver for all WTO members on the implementation of certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement in relation to the prevention, containment or treatment of COVID-19.
“Met Prime Minister @narendramodi on the sidelines of #G7 and we discussed the cooperation between the our two countries in the fight against the COVID-19 which resulted in the WTO acceptance of the #TRIPSWaiver,” the South African president tweeted.
Met Prime Minister @narendramodi on the sidelines of #G7 and we discussed the cooperation between the our two countries in the fight against the COVID-19 which resulted in the WTO acceptance of the #TRIPSWaiver. pic.twitter.com/3jLHVx2rMZ
— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) June 27, 2022
We also discussed the enhancement of the trade relations between our two countries and reaffirmed our strong commitment to multilateralism and our BRICS cooperation.
— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) June 27, 2022
Modi and Ramaphosa also discussed continued coordination in multilateral bodies and the need for their reform, particularly the UN Security Council, the release said.
Earlier, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Arindam Bagchi said that the two leaders discussed “further expanding our bilateral ties in trade, investment, defence, pharmaceuticals, food security and more. Agreed to continue close cooperation in both regional and multilateral fora.” Besides India, Germany, the host of the G7 Summit, has also invited Argentina, Indonesia, Senegal and South Africa as guests for the summit to recognise the democracies of the global south as its partners.
The Group of Seven (G7) is an inter-governmental political grouping consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US. Modi is attending the G7 summit held in the Alpine castle of Schloss Elmau in southern Germany following an invitation by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. India and South Africa both are parts of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) and India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) groupings. President Ramaphosa was the chief guest at India’s 70th republic day celebration in 2019.
The year 2022 marks 25 years of strategic partnership between the two countries. The Indian origin community of around 1 million constitutes about 3 per cent of South Africa’s population.
India and South Africa have a robust economic and commercial partnership. The bilateral trade of over USD 17 billion was recorded in 2021-22. Investment from Indian companies in South Africa exceeds USD 10 billion.
India is an important supplier of pharma products to South Africa.
