Namibia and South Africa have elevated negotiations over the long-running Orange River boundary dispute to the highest political level.
Presidents Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and Cyril Ramaphosa have agreed to hold a dedicated meeting next year after ministerial efforts stalled in a bid to resolve the issue.
After years of technical discussions and ministerial engagements, Presidents Nandi-Ndaitwah and Ramaphosa will now lead negotiations themselves.
The two leaders reached the decision during the fourth session of the Namibia-South Africa Bi-National Commission in South Africa.
"We agreed that we will have a dedicated meeting for the two of us on that matter by the first quarter of 2027, and then we'll see how far we can go with it," says President Nandi-Ndaitwah.
The planned meeting follows the submission of a report by a joint committee of experts tasked with finding a lasting solution to the dispute.
The disagreement centres on the nearly 600-kilometre Orange River, which forms much of the border between the two countries.
South Africa maintains the international boundary lies along the high-water mark on the river's northern bank, relying on the 1890 Helgoland-Zanzibar Treaty between Great Britain and Germany.
Namibia, on the other hand, says the border should run along the median line of the river, a position reflected in its Constitution.
However, the dispute has remained unresolved despite repeated bilateral engagements stretching back more than three decades.
"That issue started in 1991, and we reached where we reached. But the implementation of what was agreed by the parties is where we stood. We had asked at the last Bi-National Commission in 2023 that the matter be handled by the ministers of international relations and justice. They met in Swakopmund, but they did not really come to a solution. Instead, they pushed it to the Heads of State."
The boundary question first gained political momentum after former Presidents Sam Nujoma and Nelson Mandela agreed it required urgent attention.
A joint committee of experts was established in 2016 and completed its report the following year.
The meeting between Nandi-Ndaitwah and Ramaphosa in the first quarter of 2027 now represents the latest attempt to settle one of southern Africa's longest-standing border disputes.