South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Luwellyn Landers hosted his Czech Republic counterpart Martin Tlapa for political consultations on Friday. 

The consultations focused on trade and investment, tourism, defence cooperation and science and technology, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) said in a statement.

The last round of political consultations took place in Prague in the Czech Republic in November 2016 when Landers was hosted by Tlapa for bilateral discussions and these were utilised to strengthen bilateral political and economic relations between the two countries. During that meeting, co-operation in the field of trade and investment, science and technology, defence and education were also discussed.

The most recent high-level visit between the two countries was the official visit to South Africa by the Czech Deputy Defence Minister, Pavel Beran, in September 2018.

It is expected that this year’s political consultations will further enhance bilateral and multilateral co-operation whilst agreeing on means of increasing foreign direct investment into South Africa and improved South African value-added exports into the Czech Republic.

Full diplomatic relations between South Africa and the Czech Republic were established in July 1991. the two countries enjoy cordial relations and have demonstrated this by an extensive exchange of visits, where substantive issues have been discussed. This has assisted to move the relationship to a higher level. 

The Czech Republic maintains strong diplomatic representation in Pretoria.