International Relations Minister Dr. Naledi Pandor starts a more than week-long working visit to the United States and Jamaica today to engage in high-level consultations and discussions on South Africa’s foreign policy positions.
Pandor is expected to engage with various stakeholders and organisations ranging from government, business and academia, among others.
The visit comes as South Africa’s chief diplomat often finds herself as the face of the country’s robust support for Palestinians, and its efforts at the International Criminal Court (ICC) that has placed it at odds with Washington’s support for Israel’s military offensive against Hamas.
Pandor will spend most of her time in the US capital Washington where she’ll meet members of Congress, some of whom have been critical of South Africa’s foreign policy positions including on the war in Gaza.
She is expected to explain the rationale behind them.
Pandor will participate in a roundtable with the US-Africa Business Centre, a Fireside Chat at the Carnegie Foundation and a public lecture at Howard University, a historically black research university, on the subject “Speaking Truth to Power.
She is also expected to speak at a reception in honour of anti-apartheid activists and the South African diaspora.
Pandor later departs for Kingston, Jamaica where she will co-chair a Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting of regional bloc Caricom.
