South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa is set to meet his Namibian counterpart President Hage Geingob at the Union Buildings on Thursday April 20, 2023, and the two leaders are expected to solidify bilateral relations.
Geingob, who is on a state visit to South Africa, will also discuss regional and continental matters with Ramaphosa.
“President Ramaphosa and President Geingob will discuss political and economic issues including regional, continental and international matters of mutual concern, including exchanging views on the political situation in Eswatini, conflict in Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Palestine and the Russia–Ukraine situation,” said Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya.
He said South Africa and Namibia enjoy a close historic relationship and the structural bilateral relations between the two countries are conducted under the framework of a binational commission (BNC) inaugurated in 2013.
The visit, he said, will give both countries an opportunity to “solidify their bonds of friendship through assessing progress made in the implementation of the decisions of their BNC”.
Last year South African imports from Namibia totalled R16.1bn, while exports to Namibia totalled R56.5bn.
Magwenya said the state visit was preceded by a bilateral meeting between minister of international relations and co-operation Naledi Pandor and her Namibian counterpart Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah on Wednesday.
The last state visit undertaken by Namibia to South Africa was in 2012 by former president Hifikepunye Pohamba.
