Mozambique and South Africa reaffirm commitment to boost cooperation

Maputo, 6 May (AIM) – Mozambican President Daniel Chapo and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to boost bilateral cooperation and respond to the current challenges regarding migration.

According to Chapo, speaking during his working visit to Pretoria, both countries reaffirmed the historical interdependence between them, highlighting the need to transform geographical proximity into concrete economic gains.

“As we know very well, South Africa and Mozambique are always together, united, as two brotherly countries and two brotherly peoples. The main objective was to further strengthen our bilateral relations, especially in the economic and commercial area”, he said.

The meeting was crucial to create strategic commitment to deepen economic integration and mitigate social tensions and fight against xenophobia.

The economic agenda dominated the discussions. The parties discussed joint industrialization and the exploitation of natural resources. “There are several joint projects that we can carry out in the areas of agriculture, industry, energy, gas, mineral resources, infrastructure and several other important projects to develop both countries and both peoples”, he said.

The President also emphasized the operational nature of the visit. “It was a very fruitful visit because we produced concrete guidelines that we are giving to our ministers so that they can work together and cohesively and materialize the results of this visit.”

Both Presidents agreed that Mozambican and South African peoples must be more united and fight together against xenophobia “we have always been together, during the struggle against Apartheid. We, Mozambicans, fought together with South Africa to achieve the freedom of the South African people.”

For his part, Ramaphosa said that the meeting was crucial to discuss matters of mutual interest to both countries, covering the economy, security, as well as some social issues.

“We also addressed issues relating to the restrictions that have been introduced, which our ministers will discuss with good results to see the best way to deal with them. We want to assure our South African business people that the discussions will be quite detailed when debating these issues and also to expand trade between our two countries in many ways”, he said.

Regarding migration, Ramaphosa called for cooperation and shared responsibility because “we have passed the law that people who do not have the necessary work permits in South Africa should not be employed. We encourage all people from other nations to ensure they have the proper documentation.”

(AIM)

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