Washington, DC — Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell began "a comprehensive review" of U.S.- South African relations Wednesday. The bilateral talks were the first since George W. Bush was sworn in as President in January.
Their discussion - and an earlier meeting Wednesday with National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice - focused on reaching mutual understanding and agreement on areas of mutual interest. They also discussed a Millennium Africa Recovery Plan and regional conflicts in Africa.
Although little that was concrete emerged from the two separate half-hour dialogues Dlamini-Zuma held with Powell and Rice, a South African spokesperson told allAfrica.com that "the work" of a special Binational Commission established in 1995 "will still continue."
But, because review of such commissions was one of the first things ordered by Secretary Powell when he took office, whether the commission would continue to exist is uncertain. The South African government feels strongly that the commission is an important part of the U.S.-South African relationship. The commission is credited with helping to foster the close trade and investment ties between the two countries.
The U.S, is the largest foreign direct investor in South Africa, which also benefits from trade preferences that permit the duty-free export of thousands of South African products into the United States. Both Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela have visited the U.S. as presidents; former President Bill Clinton visited South Africa in 1998. Mbeki is expected back in the U.S. on an official visit this coming June.
There are still questions surrounding who will lead the commission, if it continues. Although as Vice President and Deputy President, Al Gore and Thabo Mbeki led the commission during the years of the Clinton and Mandela administrations, future leadership of the initiative is expected to be drawn from lower levels of government in both nations.
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At a reception held in her honor at the South African embassy Tuesday evening, Dlamini-Zuma stressed the other crucial part of her trip: gaining U.S. support for the Millenium Africa Recovery Plan (MAP)."The plan will shape some of those things which are important for the Continent to recover and take its rightful place. We need to do for ourselves, but we also need partnership."
Work on MAP began two years ago when the OAU mandated South Africa's Mandela and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to design an African recovery plan. A year later, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo was added to make it a group of three. Eqypt and Senegal have since been added and the group will present the entire plan July 20 at the G8 meeting in Genoa, Italy.
"We are tied to each other by a million invisible threads, we are human, we are South Africans and we are Africans", President Mbeki told South Africa's Parliament this past February. Dlamini-Zuma brought a similar message to Washington, describing MAP, in part, as a way "to begin to develop shared values as a continent."
Minister Dlamini-Zuma left Washington Wednesday for Algeria for meetings with officials there before returning to South Africa.
