Africa-Press – Angola. The ambassador of the United Arab Emirates accredited to Angola, Salem Al Shansi, considered, this Thursday, in Luanda, the cooperative relations between his country and Angola to be excellent.
The diplomat was speaking to the press at the end of an audience with the president of the National Assembly, Carolina Cerqueira, during which they discussed, among others, aspects linked to strengthening cooperation and the importance of parliamentary relations.
The occasion was also used by the leader of Angola’s law house to formalize the invitation to the ambassador, and his delegation, to the 147th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union which the country hosts from the 23rd to the 27th of this month, which was promptly accepted.
According to Salem Al Shansi, the arrival of a delegation from the United Arab Emirates to participate, for the first time, in a major event in this area is a “good start for building relations between the parliamentary institutions of the two countries”.
“This is a good sign that the two institutions can have good cooperation and partnership here,” he said, stating that, as a general rule, Angola and the United Arab Emirates enjoy good relations and continue to work to strengthen them.
He referred to the fact that several companies from his country had been investing in Angola and cited, as an example, the United Arab Emirates Airlines, as well as the satellite provider agency, having indicated the existence of efforts to increase, increasingly, the same in different areas.
As for commercial relations, he said that the non-oil sector reached around 45 percent, which represents, on his country’s side, an investment of approximately three billion dollars.
He asserted that these went well until the time of Covid-19, so from then on, there has been a series of contacts to see the possibility of business delegations reinvesting in Angola.
Salem Al Shansi also mentioned the recently held Chamber of Commerce between the two countries, a forum that aims to contribute to a greater scale of trade in the near future.
Diplomatic relations
Diplomatic relations between the Republic of Angola and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were established on December 11, 1997, and their formalization was officially marked by the opening of the Angolan Embassy in Abu Dhabi, on September 21, 2008 , and reinforced with the opening of that country’s embassy in Luanda, on August 1, 2016.
Bilateral relations reached a new level with the first state visit of the then President of the Republic of Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, and the signing of the General Agreement on Economic, Commercial, Industrial, Technological, Financial and Political Cooperation on June 4, 2015.
Commercial exchanges
Trade exchanges between both countries are valued at 1.5 billion USD, according to the president of the Angola-UAE Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Bráulio Martins, who was speaking on the sidelines of the second edition of the Angola Global Business Forum, held from 28 to September 30th, in Luanda.
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