India, S. Africa set to surpass $10 bn trade target

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SME Times News Bureau | 09 Mar, 2011
India and South Africa, non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, have vowed to step up coordination to speed up reform of the global body as they exceed USD 10 billion bilateral trade much before the 2012 deadline.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna held wide-ranging talks with his South African counterpart Maite Nkoana-Mashabane Monday and discussed a host of bilateral issues, including trade and investment, security cooperation and the UN reforms.

Both sides expressed satisfaction that the target set by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Jacob Zuma during his visit to India in June last year of bilateral trade of USD 10 billion by the year 2012 is likely to be achieved in the current financial year 2010-11, a joint statement issued at the end of the ministerial meeting said Tuesday.

"The two countries are now working to achieve a higher trade target," said the statement. The two countries agreed for an early finalisation of Preferential Trade Agreement between India and the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU).

"India welcomed South Africa into BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), to which it has been recently admitted," the statement said.

The UN reforms figured prominently in the discussions.

"Both India and South Africa have joined the United Nations (UN) Security Council as a non-permanent member for the period 2011-12 and would work together in the council to hasten the process of reform of the United Nations, including reform of the Security Council," the statement said.

South Africa assured India of its active support for the second India Africa Forum Summit to be held in Addis Ababa in May this year. "They said that it was one of the most important partnerships in Africa and manifests India's long engagement with Africa," the statement said.