Johannesburg - South African President Jacob Zuma will visit
China and Russia in August as part of a stepped-up trade offensive aimed at members of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) grouping, it emerged Thursday.
South Africa's international relations department announced Zuma would pay a three-day visit to Russia next week, where he will hold talks with President Dmitry Medvedev,
The official visit - Zuma's first to Russia since becoming president last year - will run from August 4-6, with Zuma and Medvedev scheduled to hold talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on August 5, the department said in a short statement.
International relations spokesman Saul Kgomotso Molobi said further details of the trip, including Zuma's other meetings in Russia, would be released Friday.
Asked about the aim of the visit, Molobi said
South Africa was looking to the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) grouping of four biggest emerging economies for increased trade opportunities.
"He's going there in light of the four countries - Brazil Russia, India and China - being the only trading bloc that experienced massive economic growth in the last five years when the whole world was going through a crisis," Molobi told the German Press Agency dpa.
Solobi also divulged that Zuma would visit China in the last week of August, but would not give further details on that visit.
Zuma has already visited Brazil and India and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also visited South Africa on his Africa tour in July.
The Russia visit comes as
Moscow tries to regain influence in Africa, where the former Soviet Union was an ally of many leftist independence movements-turned-ruling parties in their struggle against colonialism.
Since the end of the Cold War, however, Russia has lost ground in Africa to China, India and, to a lesser extent, Brazil.
Russia's trade with Africa stood at about 6 billion dollars in 2008. In the same year, China's trade with the continent topped 100 billion dollars.
South Africa is Africa's largest economy and further consolidated its leadership position on the continent by
hosting a successful football
World Cup in June and July. It was the first African country ever to host the tournament.
