Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh Meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa
WVR - On the afternoon of November 21 (local time), in Johannesburg, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the framework of his attendance at the G20 Summit and engagement in bilateral activities in South Africa.
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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. (Source: VNA) |
President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his pleasure at meeting Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh again, recalling the profound impressions of the beautiful country and people of Vietnam, which is developing robustly. He once again thanked the Vietnamese leaders and people for the warm and respectful reception given to him and the high-level South African delegation during their state visit to Vietnam in October 2025.
President Cyril Ramaphosa warmly welcomed Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the high-level Vietnamese delegation to the G20 Summit, highlighting Vietnam's spirit of solidarity and active support for South Africa. He affirmed that South Africa always regards Vietnam as a close traditional friend and a top important partner in Asia.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh congratulated the South African President on the country's strong development strides and its increasing role and position on the international stage. On this occasion, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh conveyed the warm regards of General Secretary To Lam, President Luong Cuong, and National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man to President Ramaphosa and other South African leaders.
Thanking the South African President for inviting Vietnam to the G20 Summit, the Prime Minister expressed confidence that, with South Africa's role, position, and experience, the Summit would be successful, promoting the participation of countries, including developing nations, in global governance for peace, cooperation, stability, and development.
Implementing commitments from the South African President's state visit to Vietnam, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President Cyril Ramaphosa officially announced the upgrade of Vietnam-South Africa relations to a Strategic Partnership. This historic milestone aims to deepen bilateral relations in a substantive and effective manner based on trust.
To effectively implement the Strategic Partnership framework, the two leaders agreed to assign relevant agencies of both countries to promptly develop an Action Plan to implement the newly established relationship framework. This plan will specify the contents of the Joint Declaration on establishing the Strategic Partnership, aiming to create breakthroughs and make Vietnam-South Africa relations a model of South-South cooperation.
Both sides also reaffirmed their commitment to further enhancing economic, trade, and investment cooperation, considering it a focal point in their bilateral relations. They agreed to negotiate an agreement and immediately establish a working group to promote market access for each other's goods and products, striving to raise bilateral trade turnover to 4-5 billion USD in the next 2 to 3 years.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh proposed upgrading the Intergovernmental Committee mechanism from Deputy Minister to Foreign Minister level and urged South Africa to expedite the official launch of FTA negotiations with the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). This would create the most favourable conditions for businesses from both countries to expand cooperation and investment in various fields, especially in infrastructure, green economy, digital economy, telecommunications, agricultural production and processing, energy, electric vehicle manufacturing, and the Halal industry. He also advocated for enhanced defense and security cooperation and collaboration in new fields such as science and technology, innovation, artificial intelligence, enabling Vietnamese businesses to participate in 5G and digital transformation projects in South Africa. Additionally, he emphasized boosting cooperation in tourism, education and training, labor, sports, culture, and people-to-people exchanges.
The two leaders also agreed to continue negotiations and soon sign additional important cooperation documents to establish a legal and institutional framework for bilateral relations, such as agreements on avoiding double taxation, visa exemption for ordinary passport holders, and cooperation in crime prevention.
Discussing regional and international issues of mutual concern, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President Cyril Ramaphosa agreed that the two countries would closely coordinate and support each other more at multilateral forums, especially within the framework of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Group of 77 (G77), and in contributing to the success of the G20.
President Cyril Ramaphosa appreciated and supported the proposals of the Prime Minister, particularly emphasizing support for Vietnam's practical, effective approach and its spirit of urgent action. He was pleased that in the short time since his visit to Vietnam, both sides have actively negotiated and agreed on a Joint Declaration to upgrade relations to a Strategic Partnership and an Agricultural Cooperation Agreement, a field discussed for many years. The President committed to directing South African agencies to closely coordinate with Vietnamese partners to soon realize the contents agreed upon by the high-level leaders of both sides.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that Vietnam and South Africa have always stood together in the struggle for national independence and human rights. Today, the two countries will stand together in building and developing their nations in a spirit of trust and camaraderie.
Concluding the meeting, the two leaders agreed to adopt a Joint Declaration upgrading relations to a Strategic Partnership and witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on agricultural cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment of Vietnam and the Ministry of Agriculture of South Africa.
