French President Emmanuel Macron to visit South Africa later this month

Macron’s meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the sidelines of a summit in Paris paved the way for the state visit.

PRETORIA, May 19 (ANA) – French President Emmanuel Macron will visit South Africa later this month after holding discussions with President Cyril Ramaphosa this week on the sidelines of a summit in Paris on financing African economies, the Presidency said on Wednesday.

In a statement, Ramaphosa’s office said he had returned home after participating in the summit and holding bilateral meetings on the sidelines with Macron as well as several other African leaders to enhance diplomatic relations.

“Ahead of the start of the summit yesterday, President Ramaphosa and President Macron … met for bilateral talks at the Élysée Palace. The leaders’ discussion paved the way for a state Visit that President Macron will undertake to South Africa at the end of May 2021,” the Presidency said.

“The leaders also discussed vaccine production and distribution, with President Ramaphosa emphasising the importance of a temporary waiver of the World Trade Organisation regulations on intellectual property, to enable Africa to expand its capability to independently produce vaccines that will combat COVID-19 and future pandemics.”

The Presidency noted that relations between South Africa and France spanned across areas of cooperation in energy, education, science and technology, as well as trade and investment among others. The relations extended to the European Union, it added, making South Africa a key trading partner.

During the talks, Macron expressed interest in establishing a partnership with South African vaccine-producing institutions, to enhance manufacturing capacity.

While in France, Ramaphosa also held meetings with African Union Chairman, President Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the leaders of Angola, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Senegal, Rwanda and Togo.

Ramaphosa was accompanied by South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation Minister Dr Naledi Pandor and Acting Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni to the summit, which was also attended by leaders of financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and representatives of G7 and G20 countries.

“Discussions centred on external funding and debt treatment, as well as African private sector reform and expansion and infrastructure development,” the Presidency said.

“These discussions reinforced the role played by President Ramaphosa during South Africa’s 2020 tenure as chair of the African Union to secure a strong and inclusive economic recovery in Africa.”

During his chairmanship of the AU, Ramaphosa appointed special envoys to mobilise international support for Africa’s efforts to address the economic challenges bedevilling the continent as a result of the Covid-19 global pandemic.

“The summit recognised the role of extensive immunisation against Covid-9 as a global public good and committed to ensure and accelerate equitable access in Africa to safe and affordable vaccines, treatments and diagnostics through the ACT-Accelerator and its COVAX facility,” the Presidency said.

“The summit called for a swift decision on implementation of an unprecedented general allocation of the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights which is expected to amount to US$650 billion, of which US$33 billion will be used to increase reserve assets of African countries.”

The summit also expressed support for African national strategies on growth and jobs and welcomed the ambition to develop an alliance for entrepreneurship on the continent.

“The alliance will help mobilise all partners ready to support, through financial and technical resources, the development of the private sector on the continent,” said the Presidency.

– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa