Russian President Vladimir Putin has wished his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, a happy New Year and Christmas, the Kremlin reported.
In his message, Putin expressed hope for the development of cooperation between the two countries.
"We attach special importance to coordinating our efforts within BRICS. Russia intends to rely on South Africa’s best practices as it assumes the chairmanship in this prominent and now expanded international association," the president said in his message.
South Africa presided over the BRICS grouping in 2024. Russia will chair in 2024 and organize the summit that will include new members joining the original five ones on January 1. Among them are two African countries – Egypt and Ethiopia.
The Russian leader noted that relations between his country and South Africa are friendly and constructive, which was fully confirmed by the joint work during the second Russia-Africa Summit, held in July in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg.
The two BRICS members enjoy productive cooperation. Russian-South African trade in January-October increased by almost 30% year-over-year to $530 million, Russian Deputy Agriculture Minister Sergey Levin, said in late November.
The two countries are developing partnership in the energy sector. Recently, South Africa's Cabinet of Ministers approved Russia's GazpromBank Africa as an investment partner for the revitalization of the Mossel Bay gas-to-liquids plant, according to the government agency.