International Relations and Cooperation Deputy Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim will, on Thursday, 17 September 2009, co-chair the South Africa-China Strategic Dialogue Forum with his counterpart from the People’s Republic of China, Assistant Minister Zhai Jun in Pretoria.
The South Africa-China Strategic Dialogue Forum is an annual consultation between the Republic of South Africa (RSA) and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), and it takes place against the backdrop of solid bilateral and trade relations between the two countries. Accordingly this year’s session of the forum will examine ways to further build on this solid foundation by focusing, among others, on:
* reviewing bilateral relations
* African issues and China’s policy towards Africa
* multilateral cooperation and international developments.
The South African-China Strategic Dialogue Forum was launched on 7 January 2008. The Strategic Dialogue Forum offers the two countries an opportunity to discuss bilateral economic and political co-operations and multilateral matters. The dialogue also allows for the two countries to discuss the status of structured bilateral engagements, such as the South Africa-China Bi-National Commission as well as forthcoming ministerial and presidential visits.
Since the launch of the dialogue forum on 7 January 2008, there have been three further meetings between the ministers of Foreign Affairs (21 April 2008 in Beijing, September 2008 in New York on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly and the last meeting on 16 January this year in the Western Cape). In addition to these meetings, the inaugural meeting of the Strategic Dialogue Mechanism was also held on 23 April 2008 in Beijing. The meeting on 17 September 2009 will be the second meeting of the mechanism, hosted by South Africa for the first time.
For more information contact:
Malusi Mogale
Cell: 082 675 0380
Issued by: Department of International Relations and Cooperation
15 September 2009
Source: Department of International Relations and Cooperation (http://www.dfa.gov.za/)
