Shaun Benton
29 February 2008
South Africa and France signed a raft of agreements at the start of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's state visit on Thursday, in what President Thabo Mbeki described as a deepening of the "already excellent relations" between the two countries.
The agreements, signed in Cape Town by French Secretary of State for Cooperation Jean-Marie Bockel and several South African Cabinet ministers, covered the areas of science and technology, skills and transport.
Another agreement signed was for a joint application by the two countries to a United Nations body to extend their continental shelves off the South African islands of Marion and Prince Edward and the French archipelago of Crozet.
Should this be approved by the UN's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, in accordance with Article 76 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, then South Africa and France would become "neighbours", sharing a common maritime border.
France to assist on energy
Also signed on Thursday was an agreement around energy, with President Mbeki announcing that France would be sending several engineers to South Africa "in the next few days". SA's shortage of engineers is exacerbating problems around the provision of electricity in the country.
This assistance, Sarkozy said, was "totally irrespective of any bids French companies will be sending in the next few days" around the building of another nuclear power station in South Africa, which is part of the government's longer-term plan to double SA's electricity production over the next two decades.
Representatives of French energy companies Areva, Alstom, EDF and Bouygues are accompanying the French president on his visit, and were expected to participate in a South Africa-France Business Forum in Cape Town on Friday.
Trade and investment
South Africa is France's number one
trading partner in Africa. There are about 160 French companies operating in South Africa, including large multinationals like Total, Alcatel, Renault and Danone.
Bilateral trade between the two countries totalled about R26-billion in 2006/07, according to a media briefing earlier this week by Foreign Affairs senior official Gert Grobler.
France is also South Africa's eighth-largest trading partner, although the balance of trade currently falls in France's favour, as a major economic power, while South Africa is working to increase its exports to France.
According to Grobler, the significant increase in French tourists over the past few years has seen almost 50 000 French citizens visiting South Africa each year.
Global issues
Among the issues discussed by Mbeki and Sarkozy on Thursday were matters before the UN Security Council, which South Africa is to preside over for one month this year as it concludes its non-permanent
two-year membership.
Sarkozy said that France would be looking for a "third wave" of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear ambitions, and said he would be looking for South Africa's support in this regard.
Mbeki said the matter would be discussed in the light of the UN Security Council's resolution on Iran, but added that South Africa wanted the issue to be addressed "in a manner that reassures the rest of the world that we respect the right of peaceful use of nuclear energy" and not the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Mbeki added that while South Africa respected the use of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, it was "at one with the rest of the world that Iran should not have nuclear weapons".
Africa
The two presidents also discussed the issue of globalisation, with Sarkozy saying that Africa "needs to stand on its own two feet" as it integrates with a economically globalising world.
Mbeki picked up on the issue strongly, saying it was important that Africans did not simply shrug the process off as some sort of inevitable, unchangeable reality. Africans "shouldn't stand paralysed" in this process, he said.
"We need to intervene in the globalisation process in order to make sure it addresses human needs," he said, adding that Africans had to find their own solutions themselves and not wait for other continental players to come up with advice.
The French president said that, while he had no wish for France's colonial legacy in Africa to be "swept under the carpet", and no intention of trying to simply forget the past, he had come to Africa to offer "equality, equity and respect".
South Africa's role
Sarkozy also noted that South Africa should no longer be relegated to the "tail-end" of G8 meetings, but that, as a member of the G5 group of advanced developing countries - along with Mexico, India, Brazil and China - become part of what should be
an enlarged, equal grouping of the G13.
South Africa had "a full role to play" in such a forum, he said and, he added in a later speech, a role in the possible extension of the UN Security Council's permanent members, as well a stronger role in international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund.
"I think it is unthinkable to solve world issues without Africa," Sarkozy told reporters.
Source: BuaNews
