Zuma, Clinton see eye to eye on Africa
Proffesor Ndawonde
11 August 2009
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described her meeting with South African President Jacob Zuma in Durban on Saturday as "extremely helpful", saying she appreciated his advice "on how we can make progress to resolve issues affecting the African continent".
"We in fact have the same goals for the peaceful, progressive and prosperous Southern Africa moving East and West," Clinton said. "His advice was extremely helpful to us."
Clinton said she and Zuma had discussed everything from regional issues in Zimbabwe, Somalia and Sudan to global issues like climate change. "In fact we had a broad and substantial discussion," she said.
Clinton described her visit to South Africa as a reaffirmation of the relations between South Africa and the United States, and a continuation of the discussion started by Zuma and US President Barack Obama at the recent G8 summit in Italy.
She said she had been tasked by her administration to ensure that Zuma and Obama's expectations were met as the two countries worked on their bilateral relationship and on addressing regional and global challenges.
Zuma told reporters that South African and the United States had new administrations in place, both of which were keen to take their relationship to a higher level.
"I should not be surprised seeing Clinton here in South Africa," Zuma said. "We both have the same goals of strengthening our bilateral relationship and addressing regional and global challenges."
Zuma said they had also discussed the necessity of transforming global institutions so that they reflected the interests of all countries.
South Africa was the third country, after Kenya and Somalia, on Clinton's seven-leg African tour. She was still due to travel to Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde.
Source: BuaNews
