India and South Africa sealed a three-year strategic programme covering all aspects of bilateral ties as Prime Minister Narendra Modi met visiting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Friday. The strategic programme will cover cooperation in a range of areas, including defence and security, trade and investment, the blue economy, tourism, IT and agriculture.
In his statement to the media, Modi said, “During our interactions today with the President, we reviewed all the dimensions of our relations. Our trade and investment relations are becoming more and more intense. Our bilateral trade is worth more than $10 billion. South Africa participated as the Partner Country in the ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ summit held this year.”
After the fourth meeting between Modi and Ramaphosa within a year, the two leaders recalled the Strategic Partnership established between India and South Africa through the Red Fort Declaration of March 1997 and the Tshwane Declaration of October 2006, and expressed satisfaction at the deepening and widening of this bilateral partnership.
Stressing the need to deepen relations in the political, economic, defence, scientific, consular and socio-cultural spheres, they agreed that the 10th Session of the India-South Africa Joint Ministerial Commission will be held in 2019 in Delhi led by the Foreign Ministers of both the countries.
