India and South Africa to sign one 'catch-all' document on Republic Day
Indrani Bagchi | TNN | Jan 24, 2019, 19:09 ISTNEW DELHI: India and South Africa will announce a roadmap for their strategic partnership on Friday, when visiting South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa holds talks with prime minister Narendra Modi. Ramaphosa is the chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations.
Instead of signing more MoUs, the two sides will sign one “catch-all” document, said T.S. Tirumurti, secretary ER in MEA. briefing journalists before the visit, he said, the agreement will be a three-year roadmap to implement joint agreements on a host of areas — “defence and security, political relations, trade and investment, blue economy, tourism, science & technology, IT, agriculture.”
Ramaphosa will arrive on Friday and will depart after the President’s At Home party on 26th January. India is the last stop of a 10-day foreign trip for the South African president, said Ruchira Kamboj, India’s high commissioner to Pretoria. The visit has taken him to Ethiopia, Geneva, Davos and now India. After the official discussions, Ramaphosa will deliver the Gandhi-Mandela Freedom lecture at the ICWA.
While India and South Africa have an old relationship, the strategic partnership of 1997 has added new layers. the two countries have been working together in organisations such as BRICS, IORA, and IBSA. While BRICS has powered ahead largely due to the strength of China, IBSA has floundered. Originally created as a grouping of democracies, IBSA, is only a foreign minister-level group now. “Since this is the 15th year of IBSA, we are planning 15 activities in all three countries aimed at reviving the group,” Tirumurti said.
The discussions will cover new security areas like maritime security, terrorism, FATF and cyber-security. Some multilateral ground will be covered because, in recent years, South Africa has also drawn closer to China. The Republic Day visit will see both sides a little distracted since both countries are heading into elections later this year.
Writing for Mumbai-based think-tank, Gateway House, former diplomat Rajiv Bhatia says, “.. the challenge for New Delhi and Pretoria is to convince each other – and their media and strategic communities – that they can deepen the bilateral engagement while furthering other partnerships. There is a compelling need to ensure better alignment between India’s Africa policy and South Africa’s Asia policy.”
The people to people link remains strong as does investment flows between the two countries — however, despite 1.5 million Indian-origin people in South Africa, Indian officials say visa regime in South Africa is restrictive, with long wait times for visas to Indians who wish to travel there. Officials say they are negotiating an agreement which could liberalise the visa regime.
Instead of signing more MoUs, the two sides will sign one “catch-all” document, said T.S. Tirumurti, secretary ER in MEA. briefing journalists before the visit, he said, the agreement will be a three-year roadmap to implement joint agreements on a host of areas — “defence and security, political relations, trade and investment, blue economy, tourism, science & technology, IT, agriculture.”
Ramaphosa will arrive on Friday and will depart after the President’s At Home party on 26th January. India is the last stop of a 10-day foreign trip for the South African president, said Ruchira Kamboj, India’s high commissioner to Pretoria. The visit has taken him to Ethiopia, Geneva, Davos and now India. After the official discussions, Ramaphosa will deliver the Gandhi-Mandela Freedom lecture at the ICWA.
While India and South Africa have an old relationship, the strategic partnership of 1997 has added new layers. the two countries have been working together in organisations such as BRICS, IORA, and IBSA. While BRICS has powered ahead largely due to the strength of China, IBSA has floundered. Originally created as a grouping of democracies, IBSA, is only a foreign minister-level group now. “Since this is the 15th year of IBSA, we are planning 15 activities in all three countries aimed at reviving the group,” Tirumurti said.
The discussions will cover new security areas like maritime security, terrorism, FATF and cyber-security. Some multilateral ground will be covered because, in recent years, South Africa has also drawn closer to China. The Republic Day visit will see both sides a little distracted since both countries are heading into elections later this year.
Writing for Mumbai-based think-tank, Gateway House, former diplomat Rajiv Bhatia says, “.. the challenge for New Delhi and Pretoria is to convince each other – and their media and strategic communities – that they can deepen the bilateral engagement while furthering other partnerships. There is a compelling need to ensure better alignment between India’s Africa policy and South Africa’s Asia policy.”
The people to people link remains strong as does investment flows between the two countries — however, despite 1.5 million Indian-origin people in South Africa, Indian officials say visa regime in South Africa is restrictive, with long wait times for visas to Indians who wish to travel there. Officials say they are negotiating an agreement which could liberalise the visa regime.
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