Foreign Relations of South Africa - Rest of World

• Date started: 1947
• Australia has a High Commission in Pretoria.
• South Africa has a High Commission in Canberra.

• Date started: January 1998
• The PRC has an embassy in Pretoria.
• South Africa has an embassy in Beijing and a Consulate-General in both Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Despite Pretoria's long relationship with the government in Taiwan and late recognition of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1998 the two countries currently enjoy an increasingly close relationship. Increasingly numerous official visits to each other's countries by their respective officials and rapidly increasing trade between the two countries has drawn them ever increasingly together.

• Period of recognition: 1949 - January 1998
• Taiwan has a Taipei Liaison Office in Pretoria.
• South Africa has a Taiwan Liaison Office in Taipei.

Relations were established between the two countries in 1949 and grew considerably after 1971 until South Africa announced that it would switch recognition from the government in Taipei to the People's Republic of China in December 1996.

There is a major resident Indian community in South Africa that made a significant contribution to the struggle for civil rights; Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi pioneered the non-violent civil disobedience in the struggle of Indian people for civil rights in the 1890s and 1900s. Indians also contributed to the African National Congress's struggle against the Apartheid regime. The Indian government was an outspoken critic of the apartheid-era South African government, refusing to maintain diplomatic relations. India's support evoked goodwill in South Africa and other African countries.

South Africa and Iran share historical bilateral relations and the latter supported the South African liberation movements. It severed official relations with South Africa in 1979 and imposed a trade boycott in protest against the country's Apartheid policies. However, in January 1994, Iran lifted all trade and economic sanctions against South Africa and diplomatic relations were reestablished on 10 May 1994.

Former ANC leader Nelson Mandela first visited Israel in 1999. Mandela said: "To the many people who have questioned why I came, I say: Israel worked very closely with the apartheid regime. I say: I've made peace with many men who slaughtered our people like animals. Israel cooperated with the apartheid regime, but it did not participate in any atrocities". Then Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited South Africa in 2004, meeting with South African President Thabo Mbeki, the first visit by an Israeli leader since the end of apartheid.