Argentina, one of the countries invited to join BRICS in January 2024, is on a diplomatic quest to strengthen relations with its future emerging nations allies.
Argentina’s secretary of foreign affairs, Ambassador Pablo Anselmo Tettamanti, is in South Africa for political consultations with Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperations (DIRCO) Alvin Botes.
Argentina and South Africa relations
It’s been over three decades since the relations between South Africa and Argentina were restored.
The Argentine Secretary minister’s visit to South Africa marks the 32nd anniversary of restoring relations between the two nations.
ALSO READ: South Africa’s ambitious Just Energy Transition: Here’s what you need to know.
The long-time diplomatic ties between the two were severed in 1986 by Argentina’s first democratically elected President, Raul Alfonsin.
At the time, South Africa was still an apartheid state.
President Alfonsin sanctioned the apartheid government in South Africa and instituted a trade embargo.
Trade between South Africa and Argentina
Since 1994, bilateral relations between South Africa and Argentina have strengthened.
Argentina is South Africa’s second-largest trading partner in Latin America. Argentine exports to South Africa have increased at an annual rate of 0.77% from $ 362 million in 1995 to $442 million in 2022.
South Africa exports $223 million worth of goods and services; the top product is steel.
Buenos Aires has been invited to join the BRICS bloc and will be able to trade in the BRICS market in January 2024.
This is expected to boost the 45-million-strong Latin American population’s GDP by more than $632 billion, with a population of 45.8 million.
