According to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, we agreed to deepen bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, infrastructure development, energy, tourism, education and training, and digital technologies.

In addition, President Xi and I believe that the Brics should play a greater role in global affairs, he added.

The two leaders also discussed the need to reduce the trade deficit between South Africa and China, and considered that one of the ways to do this is by ensuring greater access to the Chinese market for South African value-added export goods.

China, Ramaphosa recalled, is South Africa’s largest trading partner, and South Africa is China’s largest trading partner in Africa.

On multilateral cooperation, the two leaders agreed to consult on issues of common interest, in contexts such as the Brics, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac), the G77 plus China, and the G20.

In addition, the South African leader said, we have discussed areas of synergy in line with the call by South Africa and other African countries for the reform of global governance institutions, in particular the United Nations Security Council.

We agreed, he emphasized, that the interests of the Global South must be fairly represented in all multilateral forums.

During their dialogue, Xi and Ramaphosa addressed the ongoing armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, on which they agreed on the “importance of dialogue and negotiation between the two sides.”

As South Africa, the South African president said, we are encouraged that President Xi has welcomed the peace mission to Russia and Ukraine initiated by African leaders.

Today afternoon the two leaders will co-chair a China-Africa leaders’ roundtable on the sidelines of Xi’s state visit to further deepen cooperation between China and the African continent in the development, industrialization and integration of their economies.

Lrr/arm/mem/mv