Portugal and Angola. A "profound" relationship with a great future to be built

The Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro met on Friday with the President of Angola, João Lourenço, noting at the end the "symbolism" of the Angolan Head of State’s presence in Portugal to commemorate the 50 years of the 25 April revolution.

 In a statement following the meeting, Luís Montenegro stressed the "extremely profound cultural and historical relationship that unites the Angolan and the Portuguese people, and which also unites the Portuguese Government and the Presidency of the Angolan Republic", one the Portuguese Prime Minister wishes to intensify.

"I had the occasion of offering the President of Angola an overview of our intentions to remain on this path of close relations in many areas from culture to educaiton, economic relations, which we are also interested in", Luís Montenegro claimed, recalling there are many Portuguese companies "operating in strategic areas in Angola, in the agrifood, textiles, pharmaceutical tourism, construction, renewables sectors, and in technological fields". "We are very interested in continuing to chart this common path", the Prime stated. A path that includes fostering Portuguese companies’ activity in Angola, as well as offering Angolan companies identical opportunities in Portugal.

With cooperation and friendship ties between both countries that enables "looking at what we do, but above all what we will do", Luís Montenegro further advocated that Portugal and Angola shouldn’t act on a bilateral level only, rather at multilateral level too, "under the framework of the relations between Angola and the European Union, the CPLP [Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries], under the United Nations and G20, as we have both been invited by Brazil to take part in the G20 work" [a group that brings together the world’s largest economies and this year is presided over by Brazil]. 

Angola backs Portugal for the UN Security Council

The cooperation between both countries on a global level was also noted by the Angolan head of State who recalled that Portugal applied to sit in the United Nations Security Council and made it clear Angolan will support this: "As is obvious, Angola will back this application for 2027/28."

Without leaving unsaid the ongoing obligation to do more, João Lourenço considered that "the relations between both countries are at their best" and announced he has invited the Portuguese Prime Minister to visit Angola shortly.