Assistant Minister for Political Affairs, Mr. Vice Skracic, held on June 27, 2018 the sixth political consultations with the Head of Central and Eastern Europe Directorate, Nordic and Baltic Countries at the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa (DIRCO), Ms. Linda Shongwe.
The delegations emphasized traditionally good and friendly relations between the two countries, confirmed by the regular political dialogue. The ways of strengthening bilateral cooperation were discussed and the mutual desire to achieve the first high level visit between the two countries has also been taken into consideration.
Both sides agreed that there exists a great potential for deepening bilateral economic cooperation between the two countries, especially in the field of science, technology, shipbuilding, energy and the ICT sector, with a particular interest for cooperation in the field of tourism. Economic diplomacy and the need for increased trade investments remain the primary focus of South Africa"s foreign policy. During the consultations, opinions were exchanged on current regional and multilateral issues, the Croatian Presidency of the Central European Initiative, the Council of Europe"s Council of Ministers and the upcoming Croatian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, as well as the South African Presidency of BRICS and the election of South Africa as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2019-2020 period. The problem of migration to the European Union and intra-African migrations have also been discussed, as well as the implementation of instruments for solving and suppressing their root causes. The South African delegation held meetings also at the Brodarski Institute and the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Croatia.
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