President Ramaphosa asked Vice Premier Sun to convey his sincere greetings to President Xi Jinping and thanked China for extending a helping hand to South Africa in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which fully demonstrated the profound friendship between the peoples of the two countries.
President Ramaphosa emphasised that the South Africa-China relationship is of special and strategic significance, and both sides should work to enrich the content of bilateral relations, consolidate political mutual trust, expand trade and investment, promote people-to-people exchanges, and deepen cooperation within the framework of mechanisms such as the BRICS to enable more ordinary people from both countries to engage in bilateral relations.
Vice Premier Sun conveyed President Xi Jinping's warm greetings and good wishes to President Ramaphosa. She said that China and South Africa share a special friendship of "comradeship plus brotherhood".
With the two presidents keeping close communication, and pointing the direction for bilateral relations, China-South Africa comprehensive strategic partnership enjoys a strong momentum of development, with deepening political mutual trust, fruitful practical cooperation, productive people-to-people exchanges and sound communication and cooperation at multilateral level.
Sun Chunlan said that China always views its relations with South Africa from a strategic and long-term perspective, and is ready to work with South Africa to follow the important guidance of consensus reached by the two heads of state, continue to firmly support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns, and deepen experience-sharing on governance and development.
The Chinese government has been optimising epidemic prevention and control measures and actively creating conditions for facilitating people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries. China is ready to take the opportunity of celebrating the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties with South Africa to expand face-to-face exchanges in various fields and at various levels, and strengthen cooperation with South Africa in education, science and technology, health, culture, tourism and sports.
China fully supports South Africa's BRICS presidency and stands ready to further enhance cultural exchanges and mutual learning among BRICS countries so as to consolidate popular support for BRICS cooperation.
On the same day, Vice Premier Sun and South African Minister Nathi Mthethwa of Sports, Arts and Culture, co-chaired the third meeting of the China-South Africa High-Level People-to-People Exchange Mechanism. The two sides signed the minutes of the meeting and jointly witnessed the signing of three cooperation agreements in the fields of education, science and technology, and health.