Cairo: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates Badr Abdelatty asserted on Thursday that joint relations with South Africa were upgraded to the level of strategic partnership. He referred to the big momentum in bilateral ties at the behest of political directives of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Both leaders agreed on intensifying efforts to achieve the interests and materialize the aspirations of the African continent, said Abdelatty.
According to State Information Service Egypt, the continuation of ties binding Egypt and South Africa and the exchange of visits at the ministerial level reflect the utmost keenness of the two countries on boosting brotherly bonds, he pointed out. Addressing a joint press conference with South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola, Abdelatty welcomed the South African official and his accompanying delegation in his second homeland Egypt.
He said the first round of politic
al consultations between Egypt and South Africa convenes six months after the convocation of the tenth round of the Joint Cooperation Committee that was held at the ministerial level in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa. Abdelatty said there are directives to activate mechanisms of joint cooperation and coordination to upgrade relations between Egypt and South Africa to strategic partnership.
He said his visit to South Africa comes in tandem with the convocation of the joint ministerial political consultations round and a business forum grouping the investment and foreign trade ministry, the General Authority of Investments, the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce and a number of South African ministries. He added that a large number of Egyptian and South African companies are taking part in the forum, which reflects the two countries’ keenness on encouraging the private sector to play a pivotal role in enhancing strategic partnership.
Abdelatty said the Cairo to Cape Town Highway, the longest o
f all the routes that straddle the entire continent from north to south, is one of the landmarks of bilateral and continental cooperation involving Egypt and South Africa. This important project is supported by Egypt, South Africa and the African Union as a strategic project in the infrastructure linkage domain, he said, adding that both countries attach importance to fostering collective cooperation in face of challenges threatening peace, security and sustainable development.
Consultations between the two countries cover many fields, including reforming the African Union, developing the role of BRICS and putting an immediate end to the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the unprecedented humanitarian tragedy in the coastal enclave. He expressed Egypt’s appreciation for South Africa’s support of Palestinian rights.
Abdelatty said that his consultations with Lamola tackled the never-ceasing Israeli aggression on the West Bank and the aggression on Lebanon along with crises in Libya, Sudan and conditio
ns in Somalia, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes, the Chad Basin and the Sahel regions. They also discussed the situation in south the African continent, he added.
Abdelatty further mentioned that they agreed on the necessity of maintaining joint efforts to combat terrorism through the implementation of a comprehensive strategy, taking into account the different security, developmental and intellectual dimensions. He added the talks also dealt with ways of joint cooperation as part of South Africa’s membership of G20 to boost issues of the African continent on the global agenda.