Brasilia – Angola and Guinea-Bissau on Saturday exchanged views on mechanisms to boost cooperation, mainly at the CPLP level.
This was during a meeting the Angolan president João Lourenço held with his Guinea-Bissau counterpart, Umaro Sissoko Embaló, in Brasilia, ahead of the inauguration of the President-elect Lula da Silva.
After the meeting, the minister of State and Foreign Affairs of Guinea-Bissau Suzi Barbosa said that the meeting aimed to « update » bilateral ties between the two countries, as Angola is at the helm of CPLP.
The coming of Lula da Silva into the office will help intensify and strengthen cooperation relations with the African countries of the CPLP, according to the assurance Barbosa received from her Brazilian counterpart, Mário Vieira, with whom she also met on Saturday.
Guinea-Bissau, which holds the current presidency of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), plans to hold a meeting with the CPLP countries to strengthen economic cooperation among member countries.
« Taking into account the imminence of a possible food shortage situation in the world, I think it is crucial to combine efforts. ECOWAS countries and the CPLP can make this approach, » said Barbosa announcing that the meeting could take place in early 2023 in Bissau.
In another audience, the Angolan Head of State reviewed the situation of cooperation with Algeria, during an audience granted to the Speaker of the Parliament of this African country, Ibrahim Boughali.
Speaking to journalists, Ibrahim Boughali said that the cooperation at economic and political level « leaves a little to be desired », a point of view also expressed by President Lourenço.
« The Speaker of the Algerian House of Representatives said that he was satisfied with the outcome of the meeting.
In the framework of the need to strengthen cooperation, Ibrahim Boughali announced the holding of a meeting, in the first half of 2023, period in which the President of the Republic of Angola may make an official visit to the Republic of Algeria.
« We are with the mission of working in the diplomatic sense so that we can set a date on which the President of the Republic may materialise this visit », announced Ibrahim Boughali, for whom the relations of the two countries should now take a different move than the one they had until now.
« We had a frank and open conversation and this is the second time that I am received by the President of the Republic of Angola », he said.
On the same day, President João Lourenço also received in audience the First Deputy Prime Minister of Economy of Ukraine, Yuliia Svyrydenko.
Yuliia Svyrydenko told the press at the end of the audience that with the President of Angola she discussed the cooperation between the two countries, in addition to informing about the situation of the war in her country, which is causing suffering to the Ukrainian people, as well as impacting the economy.