Cyril Ramaphosa visits France for talks and WWI tribute

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is visiting France for talks with President Emmanuel Macron and a World War I commemoration for South African soldiers killed at Delville Wood.

Ramaphosa met Macron in Paris on Friday during the three-day visit. A French diplomatic source said the two presidents found “broad convergence of views” on crises in the Middle East and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The source said they shared the same assessment of the crisis in the Gulf and the economic consequences of disruption in the Strait of Hormuz during the US-Iran war.

Macron and Ramaphosa also agreed on the need to encourage regional peace and security efforts around eastern DRC, where the French diplomatic source said South Africa plays a stabilising role.

They agreed to establish an annual bilateral dialogue at foreign minister level.

Macron hosted a dinner for Ramaphosa at the Elysee Palace on Friday evening, attended by families of anti-apartheid struggle heroes. Ramaphosa was scheduled to meet French business leaders on Saturday.

On Sunday, he is due to take part in a commemoration marking the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Delville Wood in Longueval, northern France, where several hundred South Africans were killed in World War I.