The visit to the Republic of South Africa of the delegation from the Department of South Asian, Middle East and African Affairs

From 30 September to 5 October 2024, a delegation from the Department of South Asian, Middle East, and Africa, led by Ms. Wanalee Lohpechara, Deputy Director-General, visited the Republic of South Africa. The delegation met with various government agencies and private sector representatives, in particular, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of South Africa, to address pending bilateral issues in preparation for the 8^th Thailand-South Africa Senior Officials Meeting (SOM), expected to take place in the first quarter of 2025. Both sides agreed to promote exchanges of high-level visit and conclude pending bilateral agreements, particularly the MoUs on anti-human trafficking, ICT cooperation, and defense collaboration. Additionally, Thailand sought South Africa's support for its bid to join BRICS and proposed for a free trade agreement between Thailand and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). South Africa, in turn, expressed interest in learning from Thailand's experiences in universal health coverage and health technology assessment.

At Pretoria, the delegation accompanied by representatives from the Royal Thai Embassy there, met with various agencies including the Red Meat Industry Services to discuss trade opportunity and cooperation on capacity building of small-scale farmers in the red meat sector and the Fruit South Africa to gain insights into the country's policies and the current status of fruit market access between Thailand and South Africa.

At Cape Town, the Thai delegation met with Western Cape agencies: Wesgro and the Provincial Government of Western Cape, to discuss areas of mutual cooperation particularly trade, investment, tourism, resumption of direct flights between Thailand and South Africa and cooperation between the Port of Cape Town and the Port of Laem Chabang. They also visited Kromco facilities and met the local famers and exporters to discuss the opportunity for exporting Thai fruits to South Africa and visited Fine Chemicals Corporation factory to further enhance bilateral cooperation on public health and vaccine research.