This week, President Cyril Ramaphosa will visit Washington in response to an invitation from United States President Joe Biden.
During his recent visit to South Africa, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken extended an invitation to President Ramaphosa.
President Ramaphosa will meet with President Biden in the White House on 16 September 2022.
Minister Naledi Pandor of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) stated that the President’s visit to the United States presents an opportunity for the government to strengthen bilateral relations through engagement and deepen multilateralism through the United Nations (UN), the primary vehicle through which the international community must confront the global challenges.
According to Pandor, the two presidents will address bilateral, regional, and global topics of mutual concern, including as trade and investment, climate change, food security, energy, and international peace and security.
“President Ramaphosa will reaffirm the importance of the strategic and mutually beneficial relations between South Africa and the United States,” she said on Monday, adding that the First Citizen will emphasise the need for enhanced multilateralism and dialogue, through which the challenges facing humanity can be addressed.
“These include the urgent need to stimulate economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Pandor told media that President Ramaphosa and his delegation will also meet congressional leadership and veterans of the civil rights movements, who were instrumental in lobbying Americans against apartheid and remain loyal to the cause of anti-racism in both countries.
The US is a major export market for South Africa, a significant source of foreign direct investment (FDI), technology transfer, development assistance and tourism.
“Trade and investment relations take place under the auspices of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which grants duty-free and quota-free access to the US market for value-added products,” Pandor explained, adding that AGOA has created jobs in both countries.
According to Pandor, bilateral commerce between South Africa and the United States has increased throughout the years.
After China and the European Union, the United States is South Africa’s third biggest commercial partner, with over 600 American companies operating there.
The United States was the second largest market for South African exports in 2021.
“South African firms have also become significant foreign investors in the US,” Pandor said.
Investments from South Africa into the US are also on the rise, with America accounting for 17.4% of total South African outward FDI to the world.
“South Africa’s foreign policy remains inspired by its history. The country, working with others, strives for the attainment of a just, humane and equitable world,.
“In conducting our international relations, we attach the utmost importance to promoting human rights, democracy, equitable justice and the rule of international law. The said principles place multilateral institutions, specifically the United Nations, at the centre of our foreign policy engagements and objectives,” said Pandor.
The Minister also announced that South Africa would participate in the high-level phase of the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) from 20 to 27 September 2022 at the UN headquarters in New York.
The meetings will be held under the theme “A watershed moment: Unlocking transformative solutions to interlocking challenges” and will concentrate on development-related issues, including health, education, and the wider implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“For the global South, the economic and socio-economic impact of COVID-19 has been disproportionately about recovery in the developed North,” said Pandor.
Preceding the general debate, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, will convene a summit on ‘Transforming Education’, while discussing several climate-related matters and the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
According to Pandor, the various engagements at UNGA will provide the country with an opportunity to highlight matters of national, regional and international importance.
“South Africa’s participation in the general debate of the UNGA77 is a strategic opportunity for the promotion of our national and foreign policy objectives, as espoused in Chapter 7 of the National Development Plan, positioning South Africa in the world.”