South Africa seeks continued engagements with US ‘based on mutual respect,’ says foreign minister

ISTANBUL

South Africa seeks “continued frank engagements” with the US on geopolitical matters “based on mutual respect,” Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said Thursday.

Lamola made the remarks as he concluded his first trip to the US, according to his spokesman Chrispin Phiri, who said the trip was “successful” and “productive.”

He arrived in Washington last Thursday amid reports that Israeli diplomats are lobbying US lawmakers to pressure South Africa into dropping its genocide case against Tel Aviv at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

South Africa took Israel to the ICJ for Tel Aviv’s indiscriminate bombardment of Palestinian besieged enclave of the Gaza Strip which has resulted in the deaths of more than 41,200 victims since last October.

Lamola engaged key stakeholders in Washington, including the House of Representatives subcommittee on Africa, the Congressional Black Caucus, the US Chamber of Commerce and bipartisan think tanks, said Phiri.

The foreign minister emphasized the “importance of the dynamic and evolving relationship between South Africa and the United States” and identified areas for cooperation.

“Moving forward, efforts to sustain important engagements regularly in a structured system will be explored at a high political level,” said Lamola.

Addressing the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 53rd Annual Legislative Conference in Washington last week, Lamola said: “Let us engage on differences but we may agree to disagree.”

“We will not tell the US what to do and we expect the US not to tell us what to do,” he said.