Reporting from Beijing: President Cyril Ramaphosa was bullish on Thursday night as he bid farewell to South African and international journalists in Beijing, at the conclusion of his two-pronged visit to China.
Ramaphosa was this week on a State Visit to China, before he attended the successful Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit which drew around 50 African heads of State to Beijing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, in the opening ceremony of FOCAC pledged $50.7 billion (around R904 billion) in investment and assistance packages to the African continent over the next three years.
“We have just concluded the most successful visit to China which had two parts. The first was the State Visit where we were hosted by President Xi Jinping and the second was attending the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit.
“This was my second State Visit to China and of course we had a number of objectives that we wanted to achieve in terms of the outcomes.
“For us the first one is to enhance the relationship between China and South Africa, particularly in relation to the strategic partnership we have.
“We were able together to upgrade our from being a comprehensive strategic partnership to an all-round cooperative strategic partnership in the new era.
“The new era means the new period that we are all operating in, of the global situation and the developments we want to foster between our two countries,” said Ramaphosa.
“We were also able to share perspectives with President Xi Jinping on the seventh administration that we were just elected into.
“We briefed him on the setting up of the government of national unity (GNU) and how it is structured. Also in the course of our discussions, we (managed to) waylay the concerns that they may have had about South Africa’s foreign policy towards China.”
Ramaphosa said he has assured Xi, who leads one of the most strategic partners of South Africa, that Pretoria will continue to adhere to the “One-China Policy” which recognises Taiwan and other regions as inalienable territories of China.
Ramaphosa said South Africa is not shifting from that position it has held for 30 years - despite the contrasting policy positions of the parties in the Government of National Unity formed after the May 29 general elections.
“We assured him that the coming in of other nine parties in the Government of National Unity does not dilute or erase our policy positions,” said Ramaphosa.
On trade, Ramaphosa was excited after several deals were clinched between South Africa and China during his tour.
“Our other objective in terms of outcomes is as to work on our economic challenges. We briefed him about the priorities of the Government of National Unity, that we want the united government now to focus on economic development particularly to tackle the challenge of unemployment and have an all inclusive growth economic trajectory.
“We also briefed him on our other priorities such as ensuring that we build more capacity in the State and that we have local governments that are more effective and efficient to serve the interests of South Africans,” he said.
IOL