{"id":224348,"date":"2022-05-12T16:05:56","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T14:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/dirco-continues-to-consolidate-foreign-policy-for-a-better-africa-and-better-world\/"},"modified":"2022-05-12T16:05:56","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T14:05:56","slug":"dirco-continues-to-consolidate-foreign-policy-for-a-better-africa-and-better-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/dirco-continues-to-consolidate-foreign-policy-for-a-better-africa-and-better-world\/","title":{"rendered":"DIRCO continues to consolidate foreign policy for “a better Africa and better world”"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) Minister, Dr Naledi Pandor, has reiterated South Africa\u2019s position that the Russia and Ukraine conflict can only be ended through negotiations.<\/p>\n

Pandor was speaking during a presentation of her department\u2019s Budget Vote to the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation in the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon. The budget has increased by at least 1.3% from the 2021\/21 financial year to about R6.6 billion in this financial year.<\/p>\n

The Minister called on the United Nations to take the lead and negotiate peace between the two countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ongoing conflict has starkly exposed the inadequacy of the UN system and highlighted the need for serious attention to our repeated calls for substantive reform of the Security Council and indeed, the United Nations body itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to working closely with other non-permanent members of the Security Council to urge them to initiate a genuine robust process of reform. We firmly believe that the Ukraine\/Russia [conflict] will only be ended through negotiations, and urge the UN Secretary General to lead as the key negotiator to secure a cessation of hostilities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Pandor said the conflict has undermined any new hope for the global community to adopt the UN\u2019s Common Agenda, which was presented by the UN Secretary General in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201c[This] has severely eroded that hope and has divided the world once again, and diverted us from the Secretary General\u2019s common agenda. Despite our calls for a ceasefire and for UN-led negotiations, the [conflict] rages on, with millions displaced and thousands maimed and killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain steadfast in our belief that war benefits no one, and that all efforts should focus on peaceful settlement of all disputes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Continental priorities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reflecting on the country\u2019s diplomatic efforts on the continent, the Minister said South Africa has committed to supporting both UN and African Union efforts to \u201csilence the guns on our continent\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said closer to home, South Africa has assumed the chair of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.<\/p>\n

The Minister said this position in SADC allows the country to focus \u201con the challenging political and security matters\u201d in countries such as Lesotho, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Eswatini.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident [Cyril] Ramaphosa\u2019s facilitation, on behalf of SADC in the Kingdom of Lesotho, continues and the national reform process is at a very critical stage. We also continue to support the SADC deployment in Mozambique as part of our region\u2019s response to the fight against extremism and terrorism.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur efforts at promoting democracy and good governance in Eswatini are also underway. The SADC secretariat has, through the organ troika, prepared a terms of reference for an inclusive national dialogue in Eswatini,\u201d Pandor said.<\/p>\n

Scourge of coups<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Minister said South Africa remains concerned about the rise in the amount of \u201cunconstitutional changes of government on our dear continent\u201d and extremism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe these undermine our continent\u2019s efforts to realise a peaceful and secure Africa. We will work with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), as well as the African Union to combat these incidents of insecurity. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will redouble our efforts to hold governments accountable to build a united front against terrorism and to prevent military interventions, as well as to stop negative foreign interference on our continent,\u201d she said. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) Minister, Dr Naledi Pandor, has reiterated South Africa\u2019s position that the Russia and Ukraine conflict can only be ended through negotiations. Pandor was speaking during a presentation of her department\u2019s Budget Vote to the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation in the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon. The budget […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-224348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/dirco-continues-to-consolidate-foreign-policy-for-a-better-africa-and-better-world.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}