9th Session of the India-South Africa Joint Ministerial Commission held in Durban

9th Session of the India-South Africa Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) was held in Durban on 19 May 2015. The session was co-chaired by Minister for External Affairs and Overseas Indian Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Foreign Minister of South Africa Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.

Main points discussed during the 9th session of JMC
• To make it more result-oriented, the two ministers agreed to work under the framework of a five year strategic programme of cooperation and decided to establish a new Joint Working Group on Trade & Economic matters on it.
• They also identified priority areas of cooperation and they are defence, deep-mining, science and technology, agriculture & food processing and insurance.
• Both sides also agreed to set up a Sub-Committee on Science & Technology and promote cooperation in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
• Swaraj and Mashabane also discussed regional and multilateral issues including BRICS, IBSA, IORA, counter-terrorism, cyber security, reforms of multilateral institutions, especially the United Nations Security Council.

Besides, prior to the JMC meet, Swaraj also met President Jacob Zuma and extended the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to him to attend the third India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS-III) in October 2015 in New Delhi.

The two ministers, Swaraj and Mashabane decided to hold the next Session of the Joint Ministerial Commission in India at mutually convenient dates in 2017.

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