President Ramaphosa Welcomes Belgium's King Philippe and Queen Mathilda In Pretoria

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa welcomed Belgium's King Philippe and Queen Mathilda in the capital of the country, Pretoria.

During the press briefing on Thursday, President Ramaphosa thanked the European country for supporting Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that Belgium has been an "important donor to the vaccine alliance GAVI, for the operation of COVAX, the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access initiative."

Ramaphosa mentioned that Belgium helped globally with 10 million doses of vaccines and a massive amount of these 10 million were sent to African countries. He also appreciated the collaboration between South Africa's Afrigen Biologics firm and Belgium's Univercells Group in order to create a novel mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

"This cooperation will ensure that we are better prepared in the event of future health emergencies, and towards achieving our goal of producing the first African-owned coronavirus vaccine," the president said, SA News reported.

He also mentioned that Belgium is a collaborator in the mRNA Transfer Hub in Cape Town, which is another capital of South Africa. Ramaphosa shared that South Africa shares some similarities with Belgium in terms of a "painful past, striving for national reconciliation, and building a common, united future."

Aside from that Ramaphosa also mentioned the ongoing Russia and Ukraine war.

"As South Africa, we continue to emphasize the importance of finding a peaceful solution to the crisis," he said. "As you rightly said back in 2013, Your Majesty, dialogue and reconciliation can change the world. We look forward to sharing our perspectives on the conflict during our meeting, and to learning more about Belgium's stance."

Ramaphosa noted that it is essential to know what are the impacts of this ongoing conflict on the international economy, especially with regard to global food and energy security.

Belgium Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, who was also present at the press conference, urged South Africa to consider using their "channels of communication to advance on a path towards peace," APNews reported.

"I think this is the major foreign policy issue for Europe and it will likely remain so, I'm afraid, for the next months," Lahbib said. "We are fully committed to help Ukraine defend itself. We see this as essential to defend European security but also the U.N. Charter's principle."

Lahbib explained that Belgium always looked up to South Africa as a "key partner" to maintain peace and defend "rights and basic international principles."

King Philippe and Queen Mathilda will be discussing business, academic, and civil society in Johannesburg and Cape Town in the upcoming days and they will also visit cultural and historical places in South Africa.

South Africa and Russia shares diplomatic relations since 1942. Russia has a consulate-general in Cape Town and an embassy in Pretoria while South Africa's embassy is in Moscow.

They are also members of BRICS, which is an acronym for leading emerging economies in the world - Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.