South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma arrived here Sunday for a three-day visit aimed at strengthening ties between the two African countries.
During her three-day stay, she is to preside with her Tunisian counterpart, Habib Ben Yahia, over a bilateral commission established between the two countries, officials said.
Dlamini-Zuma, who was welcomed at the airport by Ben Yahia, was to spend Sunday at the coastal resort of Sousse, some 140 kilometres (88 miles) from Tunis.
On Monday, she and Ben Yahia will get down to work when they chair the commission, which was established soon after apartheid ended in 1994.
The upcoming session of the commission is to tackle issues such as the alleviation of Third World debt and the scourge of HIV/AIDS in Africa, South African officials said.
Dlamini-Zuma was accompanied by officials from the departments of foreign affairs, sport, trade and industry, and agriculture.
Nine bilateral agreements have been signed between the two countries so far on co-operation in the fields of science and technology, arts and culture, public health and medical science, merchant shipping and tourism.
It is expected that further agreements will be signed at the upcoming meeting, the third session of the bilateral commission.
The last session was held in Pretoria in February 1999 – TUNIS (AFP)
