India and South Africa Signed Three Pacts

On 04 June 2010 India and South Africa signed one pact and two Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) in New Delhi during the three -day visit of South African President Jacob Zuma to India.

• Pact on to increase the air connectivity between the two countries.
• MoU on cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors.
• MoU between the Foreign Service Institute of India and the Diplomatic Academy of South Africa for improving the contacts between the two nations at foreign levels.

There will be three additional stops including Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban in South Africa and Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram in India for all flights.

India and South Africa decided to increase cooperation in the areas of science and technology, agriculture, human and resource development, people to people exchanges and security. India showed willingness to work jointly with South Africa in certain areas like capacity building, skill development, job creation and combating disease which is needed for inclusive growth.

India and South Africa agreed to coordinate better in several international forums such as the United Nations, Non-aligned movement, Commonwealth, WTO, G-20, IBSA and BASIC groupings. They agreed on the need to expand the Brazil-Russia-India-China grouping to include South Africa.

In civil nuclear sector, the cooperation between the two nations is restricted due to African treaty, which bars South Africa to do business with countries that have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty. The two sides held discussion to resume bilateral defence ties, which was discontinued after a major South African firm was black listed from defence tenders.

Besides, India and South Africa also declared mutual support for candidacy for non-permanent seats in the UN Security Council for the year of 2011-12.

• Bilateral Trade between the two nations at present is 7 billion dollars. They aim to increase it to 10 billion dollars by 2012.
• The two sides re-launched India-South Africa CEOs forum in Mumbai on 3rd June 2010.
• The major items of exports to South Africa are petroleum, drugs, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals, transport equipment, electronic goods and machinery. The major items of imports from South Africa are gold, coal, coke, inorganic chemicals, non-ferrous metals, pulp waste paper.

India-SACU (Southern African Customs Union) preferential trade agreement also reached an advanced stage during the visit of South African President. It is expected that soon this agreement will be finalized. This agreement may lead to free trade agreement between India, SACU and Mercosur (South American trading bloc). The two nations also discussed BIPPA. It will be a boost to bilateral trade and investments.

SACU consists of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. The SACU Secretariat is located in Windhoek, Namibia. It was established in 1910, making it the world’s oldest union. Any trade agreement with this union can be beneficial for India’s economic interest in the southern part of African region which is rich in minerals like Uranium and diamonds.