HH The Amir and South Africa's President Hold Official Talks

His Highness The Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, held an official session of talks this evening, at the Presidential Palace in the capital city of Pretoria.

At the beginning of the session, the President of South Africa welcomed HH The Amir and the accompanying delegation and thanked him for his replying the invitation to visit the Republic of South Africa, expressing his aspiration to strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries.

For his part, HH The Amir thanked the South African President for the warm reception and hospitality, expressing hoped that this visit would be a step forward in the cooperation relations between the two countries.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed bilateral relations and means of developing them in fields of cooperation to wider horizons in order to achieve common interests in various domains including agriculture, energy, industry, tourism, economy and trade.

The two sides agreed to raise the level of trade exchange between the two countries to more than one billion US dollars by 2020.

On the political arena, the two sides discussed the strategic issues related to regional and global security and the developments of regional and international political events, especially those related to the Middle East. They reviewed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and stressed the urgent need to revive the Arab peace initiative and the importance of reaching a just solution based on the two-state solution, in accordance with the related United Nations resolutions, international legitimacy and the agreements signed between the Palestinian and Israeli sides.

On Libya, the two sides stressed the necessity of preserving the unity, integrity and sovereignty of Libya, by establishing security and stability in it and supporting it in the fight against terrorism, and stressed the importance of the African Union role in contributing to this.

The two sides also affirmed the continuation of joint efforts with the international community regarding the promotion of security, peace and stability in the region and the world.

The session was attended by the members of the official delegation accompanying HH The Amir and a number of South Africa's ministers.