Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
MEDIA STATEMENT ON THE VISIT TO SOUTHERN AFRICA BY THE AUSTRIAN STATE SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DR B FERRERO-WALDNER : 3 - 7 FEBRUARY 1998
The Austrian State Secretary (Deputy Minister) for Foreign Affairs, Dr (Mrs) Benita Maria Ferrero-Waldnerf today met with Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Aziz Pahad. The discussions centred around SADC/EU cooperation and the fact that South Africa, as current Chair of the SADC, is in a unique position to cooperate with austria during its Presidency of the EU in the second half of 1998.
State Secretary Ferrero-Waldner emphasised Austria's committment to promoting EU/SADC cooperation and to this end proposed a series of SADC/EU conferences. These will include a SADC/EU Ministerial in Vienna in November 1998 which will look at ways of giving momentum to the Berlin initiative of 1994. Furthermore, the Austrian Government is planning to hold a SADC Ministerial Transport Conference in Maputo in October 1998 to look at ways of strengthening and rendering the SADC regional transport network more competitive. Austria will also draw on its EU cross border experiences to assist in providing a better legal framework to the regional transport system in the Southern African region.
Austria has also proposed to hold SADC Parliamentary Representatives' Conference in Vienna during October 1998. In an effort to bolster SADC capacity to deal with conflict resolution, Austria has also proposed to hold a Seminar on Conflict Avoidance and Resolution for the SADC Region in Harare during September/October 1998. This will focus on bolstering regional capacity on conflict avoidance and resolution.
In extended discussions Deputy Minister Pahad welcomed the Austrian initiatives and expressed the hope that the two countries, in their respective leadership roles, would enhance the cooperation between the two regional blocs.
In Nelspruit, the State Secretary will meet with Premier Phosa and Officials from the Provincial government and sign a cooperation agreement for the training of female local councillors. There also exists a healthy provincial cooperation agreement between Mpumalanga and the austrian province of Carinthia.
This is Mrs Ferrero-Waldner's first visit to South Africa and serves to reaffirm the excellent relations that exist between South Africa and Austria. The visit follows the highly successful visit to Austria by Deputy President Mbeki in October 1997 and is also a follow-up to recent discussions between Minister Nzo and the austrian Foreign Minister, Dr W Schussel regarding SADC/EU cooperation.
ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS PRETORIA 3 FEBRUARY 1998