G7 Summit: PM Modi meets with S African President in Germany; discusses trade and defence

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and discussed full range of friendship between two countries, including furr expanding ties in tre, investment, defence and food security.

Prime Minister Modi, who is in Germany on a two-day visit from Sunday for summit of G7, met Ramaphosa on sidelines of G-7 Summit at Schloss Elmau, picturesque venue of summit in sourn Germany.

Boosting engment with a valued partner. PM @narendramodi and President @CyrilRamaphosa held talks on sidelines of G-7 Summit. y discussed full range of friendship between India and South Africa including ways to boost tre and people-to-people ties, Prime Minister's Office said on Twitter.

Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that two leers discussed "furr expanding our bilateral ties in tre, investment, defence, pharmaceuticals, food security and more. Agreed to continue close cooperation in both regional and multilateral fora.

Besides India, Germany, host of G7 Summit, has also invited Argentina, Indonesia, Senegal and South Africa as guests for summit to recognise democracies of global south as its partners.

Group of Seven (G7) is an inter-governmental political grouping consisting of Cana, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and US.

Modi is attending G7 summit held in Alpine castle of Schloss Elmau in sourn Germany following an invitation by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.  India and South Africa both are parts of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) and India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) groupings.

President Ramaphosa was chief guest at India's 70th republic day celebration in 2019.

year 2022 marks 25 years of strategic partnership between two countries.

Indian origin community of around 1 million constitutes about 3 per cent of South Africa's population.

India and South Africa have a robust ecomic and commercial partnership. bilateral tre of over USD 17 billion was recorded in 2021-22. Investment from Indian companies in South Africa exceeds USD 10 billion.

India is an important supplier of pharma products to South Africa.