Top South African Diplomat To Raise Trade, Tourism In Talks With Russia's Lavrov

Top South African Diplomat to Raise Trade, Tourism in Talks With Russia's Lavrov

PRETORIA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2023) South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor told Sputnik she will raise trade and tourism at the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during his visit to the African continent in the coming weeks.

"We have agreed that we must review the joint commission that exists as a political forum between the two ministries and look at the various items that remain unresolved, particularly around some of the tariff, issues on trade," Pandor said in an interview.

The minister said South Africa was looking to bolster people-to-people interactions, including tourism and student exchanges.

"We would like to see greater people-to-people exchange and of course greater tourism into South Africa by Russian tourists, so we do not have enough as yet," she said.

She praised the quality of training offered to African students at Russian universities and a strong scientific cooperation that exists between South Africa and Russia, particularly in space research.

"We have a number who are training in Russian universities. We'd like to see that number increase because we have seen that the product is very, very good, the skills that are coming out of that training, and we wish to continue collaboration in science, which is very strong, particularly in space science and astronomy sciences," Pandor said.