Pretoria (VNA) – The relationsbetween Vietnam and South Africa have developed in all fields since theestablishment of diplomatic ties in 1993, especially in politics, diplomacy,economy-trade, security-defence, science-technology, and education, accordingto Vietnamese Ambassador to South Africa Vu Van Dung.

He made the statement in a recent interviewgranted to correspondents of the Vietnam News Agency in Pretoria on theoccasion of the 25th anniversary of Vietnam-South Africa diplomatic relations.

Regarding politics and diplomacy, the two sideshave maintained high-level delegation exchanges and strengthened legalframeworks for comprehensive cooperation.

South Africa shares its viewpoint with Vietnamon the peaceful settlement of disputes in the East Sea based on internationallaw.

In the field of economy, the two countries haveclosely worked together in the exchange of farm produce, shipbuilding, aquaculture,and fishing.

South Africa is a leading trade partner ofVietnam in Africa with two-way trade increasing five times over the past decadefrom 189 million USD in 2007 to 920 million USD in 2013 and one billion USD in2017, he said.

Vietnam and South Africa strive to increase thebilateral trade to 2 billion USD in the coming year, according to theambassador.
The two nations have also exchanged cooperation orientationsin the fields of telecommunication, training, and crime prevention, he said.

A number of agreements and Memoranda ofUnderstanding (MoU) have been signed and negotiated to boost cooperation invarious realms such as investment protection and promotion, double taxationavoidance, cross-border crime prevention, natural resources, education-training,and forestry, he noted.

As developing countries and members of theNon-Aligned Movement, Vietnam and South Africa actively support each other inthe international arena for common peace and development, Dung said.

The two countries advocated each other to becomea non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2007-2008 and2019-2020 tenures (South Africa) and 2008-2009 and 2020-2021 tenures (Vietnam).

As regards security-defence, based on the mutualtrust and the annual defence policy dialogue, Vietnam and South Africa haveexplored numerous opportunities to boost bilateral and multilateral cooperationin specific fields such as logistics, training, sharing experience inpeacekeeping activities, and defence industry.

Progresses were also seen in the bilateralcooperation in environment, science-technology, tourism, and education,especially after the two sides signed a tourism cooperation agreement in 2010,a MoU on water resources cooperation in 2010, and a MoU and an action plan onwild animal protection in 2012 and 2013 respectively. The signing of a MoU ontertiary education is under discussion.-VNA