India, South Africa to revise 20-year old Strategic Partnership

What to know?

• India and South Africa will update their Strategic Partnership by agreeing on a comprehensive “roadmap” on the way ahead, as well as relaxing visa restrictions.
• Ramaphosa will be in India as the chief guest at the Republic Day parade on January 26, and and will be accompanied by nine Ministers and a 50-member business delegation.
• The Strategic Partnership between India and South Africa,called the Red Fort Declaration, was signed in March 1997 by the then South African President Nelson Mandela and former PM H.D. Deve Gowda.
• The partnership would be reviewed and updated with a three-year plan of action on security cooperation, trade and investment, tourism, harnessing the ‘blue economy’, maritime cooperation, agriculture, science and technology projects.
• India has MoUs in practically every area with South Africa and each of these areas to be taken up in a time-bound manner.
• The two sides are also expected to explore new defence deals in the backdrop of the lifting of a 13-year old ban on South African defence firm Denel that was barred from doing business in India since 2005.
• Denel was finally removed from the blacklist in September 2018 after the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a closure report and the Supreme Court subsequently dismissed corruption charges against the company.
• The decision to take Denel off the blacklist was made after Mr. Ramaphosa made a personal intervention on the issue during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Johannesburg last July.
• During his visit, Mr. Ramaphosa will also deliver the “First IBSA Gandhi Mandela Memorial Freedom Lecture”, instituted by the Indian Council of World Affairs in Delhi.
• Ramaphosa said that he saw his visit to India as a “homecoming moment.”
• He wants to promote trade and good relations between India and South Africa and celebrate Mahatma Gandhi’s life and Nelson Mandela’s life, referring to India and South African links in their anti-colonial struggles.

(India & the world, Bilateral)(The hindu)

Pic courtesy: United News of India