Relationship between Cape Verde and Angola raised from bilateral to strategic 

The outgoing ambassador of Cape Verde to Angola, Jorge Eduardo Aubyn de Figueiredo, characterized Tuesday, 28, in Luanda, as “excellent” relations between the two countries.

At the end of his mission, the diplomat was received in the audience by the MPLA’s vice-president, Luísa Damião, the ruling party.

When leaving the meeting, Jorge Figueiredo said that during his six-year mission, the relations between the two countries have gone from bilateral to strategic.

During this period, he said, “three important agreements” have been signed: transportation – with the Cape Verde-Angola connection, by air and sea – facilitation of business relations and another to attract foreign investment and trade.

It should be noted that Angola granted Cape Verde 7,500 hectares in the province of Kwanza-South, specifically in the municipality of Quibala, for the production of grains to contribute to the food security of that archipelago.

However, the project did not move forward.

According to the Cape Verdean ambassador, the limitations imposed by Covid-19 prevented its development.

“As soon as I return to Cape Verde, I will exert influence to make it happen”, promised the diplomat.

To the Angolan businessmen, Jorge Eduardo de Figueiredo reminded that Cape Verde has a tourism potential representing about 35% of that country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and can be used to invest.

The diplomat, a doctor by profession, who leaves Angola next March 13 to retire, already knows what he will do for the rest of his life: dedicate himself to the pharmaceutical business.

However, he prospects to be returning to Angola as a tourist. ”

So I didn’t consider it goodbye. It was a courier mission well accomplished, but I’ll be back to visit friends and do some tourism,” he said.

TIES WITH ANGOLA ARE NOT PARTISAN

Asked about the relationship between the MPLA and the ruling party in his country, he said that Cape Verde’s vision is not to look at a party-based governing relationship.

“The relationship between Cape Verde and Angola is not established through political parties, regardless of which party is in power, in Angola or Cape Verde. The relations are deep and cannot be affected by political relations,” he said, adding that “the interests of the two peoples [Angolan and Cape Verdean] and of mutual development.”

Cape Verde has 32 years experiences of municipal elections.

In this chapter, the ambassador expressed his country’s openness to help Angola “in what it needs, whether in the area of municipal training or finance.”

Currently, the Cape Verdean community in Angola is estimated in 100,000 people, distributed by the different provinces.

With information from Forbes