Trade in the defence and security sector between the UK and South Africa is increasingly significant, British High Commissioner to South Africa Dame Judith Macgregor told Engineering News Online on Wednesday. "It's not a huge part of our trade relationship but it is important and growing and it's a growing area of cooperation," she pointed out.

British defence and security exports to South Africa are worth some £22-million a year, she reported. This amounts to about a third of total British defence and security exports to sub-Saharan Africa.

"And security broadens into protecting infrastructure, protecting people, protecting animals," she noted. "And there's cyber [security], of course. And the South African government had identified the Blue Economy [the broad maritime sector] as a priority, and I don't think we have even scratched the surface of [the opportunities provided by] that."

Macgregor was attending the first day of the Africa Aerospace and Defence 2016 exhibition at Air Force Base Waterkloof in Centurion, just south of Pretoria. In a media briefing at the event, she stressed that the UK, and British companies, wanted to develop partnerships and joint ventures with enterprises in South Africa and Southern Africa.

"We roughly have a [total] trade balance of £10-billion a year between us. We want to grow that," she told journalists. "The UK is still the single biggest foreign investor in South Africa."

"It's a very balanced trade," she said. "We both really want to increase that [trade]."

On the defence side, she noted that there was a British military peace support team deployed in South Africa. This is to assist the South African National Defence Force with its peacekeeping preparations.

In answer to a question from a journalist about the effects of the UK leaving the European Union, she affirmed that there would be "absolutely no change in our worldwide trading profile." If anything, there would be a greater stress on international trade. "We've always been a global nation. Trading and investment are hugely important for us."

"We want to strengthen our trade with South Africa," stated Macgregor. "It's a time of dynamism in our relationship."