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12. November 2015

President Zuma´s first official visit to Berlin, 9 -10 November 2015

Berlin, 10 November 2015. South Africa´s President Jacob Zuma´s first official visit to Germany ended with a dinner at the AIXA Building at Pariser Platz with high-ranking representatives of politics and economics. The President had met on that day with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Bundespräsident Joachim Gauck.

The talk between Chancellor Merkel and President Zuma was amicable and they agreed to intensify the bilateral ties, especially in regards to economic relations. 

About 600 German companies already operate in South Africa and Germany is the number one trading partner for South Africa within the EU. Other topics included the existing energy partnership and climate talks ahead of the climate summit in Paris. But there were also talks about the fight against terrorism in Africa and the current serious issue of migration, a topic that is well known in South Africa´s multi-cultural society, where 3 million migrants have arrived from neighbouring countries alone.

President Zuma came with eight Ministers, who also engaged in bilateral talks with their respective counterparts. In his closing address to a symposium on Youth Development and Youth Employment, which was facilitated by the McKinsey Group, the President expressed his appreciation for the promising impulses set by this event.

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