The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, will address the 20th anniversary conference of the prestigious Institut Francais des Relations Internationales (IFRI) in Paris, today. Dr Zuma will speak on "Governance and Globalisation" and wil l also participate in a round-table discussion on this theme.
The IFRI conference will be attended by high-level representatives from governments, the private sector and academia. These include German President Johannes Rau, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson and the new head of Europe's Common Foreign and Security Policy PESC), Mr Javier Solana.
Later today, Minister Zuma will meet the French Foreign Minister Mr Hubert Vedrine, for a wide-ranging discussion on matters of common interest, with special emphasis on the current situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Great Lakes region. This is the second annual consultation between the French and South African Foreign Ministers as provided for in the Forum for Political Dialogue, a mechanism created to boost bilateral contacts between South Africa and France at the ministerial, director-general and senior official levels.
On Thursday, Dr Zuma is scheduled to pay a brief courtesy call on the President of the French Republic, Mr Jacques Chirac, before leaving for Algiers for a meeting with her Algerian counterpart to discuss, inter alia, the DRC peace process as outlined in the Lusaka Agreement signed on 10th July this year. The Joint Monitoring Commission (JMC) envisaged in the agreement is headed by a senior Algerian military officer, General Lalali.
Minister Zuma returns to South Africa on Saturday.
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
Pretoria
3 NOVEMBER 1999