“During our deliberations, the Prime Minister (of India) and I were in agreement that considerable scope exists for our two countries to grow our bilateral economic relationship.
“While trade has increased significantly over the last few years, and India is currently our second largest trading partner in Asia, there are a number of areas of future cooperation,” he said in New Delhi, India, on Saturday at the start of his state visit to the Asian nation.
The president, accompanied by a delegation of his Cabinet Ministers and senior officials, is in India following their working visit to the just-ended World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland.
India and South Africa, the president said, could cooperate in many areas — including agro-processed goods, defence procurement, mining equipment and technology, and in the financial services sector.
During his talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ramaphosa also reviewed the existing cordial relations between Pretoria and New Delhi as well as the close cooperation within multilateral groups such as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa), the Indian Ocean Rim Association and the G20 countries.
“In order to ensure concrete deliverables, the Prime Minister and I concluded this morning a Three-Year Strategic Programme of Cooperation aimed at deepening the bilateral engagement between India and South Africa and ensuring that a result-orientated partnership benefits the people of both countries,” he said.
The two leaders have instructed their ministers and officials to commence immediate implementation of this programme to take South Africa and India’s bilateral relationship to a new level.
India is currently South Africa’s second largest trading partner in Asia and ranks among the southern African country’s top 10 trade partners.
Ramaphosa was the chief guest at India’s 70th Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on Saturday.