Country, Poland to Co-Operate in Agriculture

BuaNews (Tshwane), 9 October 2007, David Masango, Pretoria

South
Africa and Poland are to co-operate in a number of areas, including
agriculture, following a meeting between top officials in Pretoria,
Monday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sue van der
Merwe met the Polish Under-Secretary of State Witold Waszczykowski at
the Union Buildings to discuss both countries' bilateral relationship
and matters relating to their multilateral activities.

"Today, we discussed a number of issues including
becoming involved in agricultural co-operation and other areas. To this
end, we are evaluating some of the agreements in place with a view to
improving on the efficiency and effectiveness thereof," Deputy Minister
van der Merwe said.

Speaking to reporters
after their meeting on Monday, the two leaders were pleased with the
manner in which the talks went, with Ms van der Merwe saying talks were
"extremely fruitful".

She explained that South Africa and Poland had deep bilateral relations with a number of agreements in place.

The
two countries have strong political relationship and an impressively
growing trade relationship between them, added the deputy minister.

"We
also discussed high level visits including Ministerial and senior
government officials visiting each others countries to deepen our
relations.

"In addition to this, we also
believe that we should continue these annual consultations in order to
strengthen the relationship between the two countries," Ms van der
Merwe explained.

Regarding multilateral
activities, the two discussed the Africa-European Union (EU) Summit
that will be held in Lisbon later this year.

Ms Van Der Merwe also explained that both the Polish and South African governments believed the meeting was "very important".

"You
will all be aware this meeting has not taken place for seven years. We
think that there are many matters to discuss between the two continents
and this is a very opportune time to begin to reconvene these meetings
so that the respective continents can engage on many matters of mutual
importance.

"You will know that on South
Africa's side, Europe is our biggest trading partner and it is very
important that we begin to engage on that level between the European
Union and the African Union," she said.

Mr
Waszczykowski concurred that discussions covered an extensive bilateral
agenda, adding that the two countries shared a number of views on the
international agenda.

"In this regard, one of the major issues we addressed was the relationship between the EU and Africa.

"South
Africa is one of the most frequently visited and consulted with
countries in Africa because we think that our neighbouring continents
must co-operate to resolve some of their challenges," he said.

The Africa-EU summit is due to take place in
Portugal later this year, however some leaders had threatened not to
attend if Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe would be present.

"I
think it will be good to have President Mugabe to attend the summit to
have frank and open discussions. We would not like to exclude anybody
from discussions.

"Although the decision has
not yet been taken, we would rather advocate for the attendance of
President Mugabe to enable frank discussions regarding the challenges
his country is experiencing," Mr Waszczykowski explained.

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