Mbeki hails Alan Garcia’s election victory in Peru

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki(President of the African National Congressand President of South Africa) yesterday congratulated newly elected Peruvian president Alan Garcia on his poll victory.

“I take great pleasure in conveying to your excellency, on behalf of my government and the people of SA, sincere greetings and congratulations on your election as president of the Republic of Peru,” he said.

“I wish to assure your excellency of our continued desire to see a further strengthening of our relationship both at a bilateral and multilateral level.”

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma met her Colombian counterpart, Carolina Barco, in Pretoria yesterday to discuss ways of strengthening political and economic relations between the two countries.

Dlamini-Zuma said SA would look at setting up a diplomatic mission in Colombia and that the two countries were working on a defence memorandum of understanding, which could include the sale of defence equipment and exchange of security information.

Barco said Colombian authorities were still fighting drug cartels.

“Our challenge is to strengthen our police presence,” Barco said.

She said the Colombian government was particularly interested in small arms for its police and army, as well as capacity building for all its security personnel.

Barco will be in the country for the next few days, meeting various nongovernment institution leaders, academics and diplomats. Sapa