Africa-Press – Angola. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, returned to his country this Thursday, after having completed a 48-hour working visit to Angola, at the invitation of his Angolan counterpart, Téte António.
At the 4 de Fevereiro International Airport, Sergey Lavrov received farewell greetings from the head of Angolan diplomacy, Teté António, his country’s ambassador to Angola, Vladimir Tararov, the Angolan ambassador to Russia, Augusto da Silva Cunha, among other entities.
In the Angolan capital, where he arrived on Tuesday night, the Russian Foreign Minister was received in audience by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, and met with his Angolan counterpart, Téte António.
As part of his visit to Angola, Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday laid a wreath on the sarcophagus of the first President of Angola, Agostinho Neto.
During the visit, the two countries expressed interest in strengthening business relations, with emphasis on the areas of manufacturing industry, agro-industry, fisheries, energy, as well as geology and mines.
Angola and Russia have on their agenda, from 17 to 21 April next, in Luanda, the VI Session of the Intergovernmental Bilateral Commission.
The two States have had privileged relations since October 8, 1976, the date on which the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation was signed in Moscow, at the time capital of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
On 16 November 2004, the two countries signed, in Luanda, an agreement for the relaunch of cooperation in the economic and technical-scientific domains and, the following day, created the intergovernmental commission for economic, technical-scientific and commercial cooperation.
Currently, cooperation is most significant in the sectors of energy, geology and mining, higher education, staff training, defense and security, telecommunications and information technologies, fisheries, transport, finance and banking.
In 2019, the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, made his first state visit to Russia, where he held a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
In the same period, there were talks at the highest level between delegations from both countries, for the reinforcement and expansion of bilateral cooperation.
However, until the second half of 2019, trade between Angola and Russia was estimated at US$26 million, which represented a 40 percent drop compared to the previous period.
A constant factor in these relations is that the Russians sell much more than they buy to Angola. Angola’s export basket to Russia is essentially made up of wood and its by-products, scrap metals and precious stones.
On the other hand, among the top ten Russian export products are goods, military services, electrical equipment, its components, books, printing industry products, fuels, minerals, petroleum derivatives and fertilizers.
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