Africa-Press – Angola. The President of the Republic of Angola, João Lourenço, acknowledged this Wednesday, in Rome (Italy), the existence of great potential for the development of bilateral cooperation relations with Italy.
Speaking to the press at the Presidential Palace in Rome, where he held a meeting with his Italian counterpart, Sergio Mattarella, as part of a two-day state visit, he argued that the conclusion was reached that there is still great potential to be explored. , “there is a lot of ground to cover”.
The President stressed that the Italian presence in Angola today is limited, above all, to the energy, agriculture and also defense and security sectors.
“We understand that this is not enough and it is our wish that Italian investors enter other sectors of the Angolan economy, namely ornamental stones, wood industries (furniture manufacturing), pharmaceuticals, among others”, he said.
In this sense, the statesman referred that the country has “the doors open” to receive Italian investors.
However, the Angolan President said that the occasion was used to address not only bilateral issues of an economic nature, but also cultural cooperation between the two countries.
He added that Italy has one of the best universities in the world, where there is a certain number of Angolan students, but it is in the interest of the Angolan authorities that this number can increase.
During the declaration, he reaffirmed the country’s support for the Italian capital (Rome) to host Expo Universal 2030.
According to the Angolan President, the occasion was also used to review issues of world politics, namely the various armed conflicts that, “unfortunately, still exist in Africa”.
Among these, he said, the issue of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as well as the tense situation in the countries that make up the so-called Sahel region, including Mali, Borkina Faso, Guinea, Nigeria and Sudan, in this where the conflict is already responsible for a considerable number of human victims, internally displaced persons and refugees, as well as the destruction of property.
The meeting also addressed the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which is also responsible for the greatest humanitarian, food and energy crises that the world has experienced since World War II, which ended in 1945.
President João Lourenço also reaffirmed the common positions of Angola and Italy, regarding the condemnation of the invasion, occupation and annexation of part of the Ukrainian territory by Russia.
In this regard, they called for an immediate end to the conflict, as well as for a cease-fire to be reached quickly and for the start of negotiations to guarantee peace and security, not only for Ukraine, for Europe, but for the world.
This, he argued, if we take into account that if that does not happen, peace runs the risk of becoming a nuclear conflict, which will be bad for the whole world.
The State visit of the Angolan President to Rome comes in return for that of the Italian Statesman, Sergio Mattarella, made to Angola, in 2019, in this case, the first Italian Head of State to visit the country.
The two countries formalized diplomatic and cooperation relations on June 4, 1976 and on August 3, 1977 they signed the Technical Cooperation Agreement, as well as the Memorandum of Intentions, through which the Angola/Italy Joint Commission was created.
Both States signed the first legal instrument called the Air Transport Agreement on April 10, 1976.
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