Welcome to the page of the State Visit to Angola

I begin by expressing my thanks, deeply gratified, for the honourable invitation to address, in this House, the representatives of the People of Angola. This is a very significant gesture, which well demonstrates the bonds of fraternal friendship that link Portugal and Angola.

It is with great joy that I return to this country, with which I am linked by feelings of special affection and whose courageous fight for peace and reconciliation is mingled with some of the more prominent pages of my own life, as a man and a politician. It is natural that we feel at home when we are amongst friends, who welcome us with the affection and hospitality that we usually reserve for those nearest to us.

In Angola, Members of Parliament, I feel at home, and I am grateful for it.

Few countries are able to feel the pride afforded by such a near and multifaceted relationship as exists between Portugal and Angola. A relationship based upon a unique density of historical, cultural and human bonds.

Portugal and Angola, as free and sovereign nations, and proud of being so, are not, and never will be, foreign to each other.

Mister Speaker,
Members of Parliament,

Nineteen years have gone past since my last official visit to Angola, then in the office of Prime Minister, and a short while after the signature of the Bicesse Agreements. I returned to Angola in 2005, as a common citizen, on a private visit, and witnessed the notable effects of the development cycle that conquering peace had finally made possible.

On the year when Angola commemorates the 35th anniversary of national independence and which the African Union has consecrated as the “Year of Peace and Security in Africa” I want to take the opportunity afforded me by this Magnificent Assembly to pay my tribute to the People of Angola, who were able put an end to a time of war and confrontation, and to open up an era of reconciliation and national reconstruction.

A new era, marked by peace, by the conquest of stability and by the building of a democracy, of which this House is an eloquent reflection. An era that allows the supreme gift of peace to be followed by the ambitions of a society that views its inalienable rights in the development of paths of political, economic, cultural and social justice.

Angola has today a multiparty political system and a rousing and dynamic civil population, which expresses its ideas and makes its choices. A fair instance of this is how well the recent legislative elections took place and the high popular participation recorded.

But, as we are well aware, democracy is almost always an unfinished work, which demands attention and a permanent task of consolidation and improvement in its quality. I am certain that nobody will be surprised that in this regard I would emphasize, in this House, the immensely relevant role reserved for Parliament.

The consolidation of a modern, plural and participative democracy, as we all know, requires strong Parliaments that promote the debate of ideas, that give voice to the opposition parties and that ensure a close and responsible supervision of the government’s actions. In democratic societies, Parliaments have a central role in the development of the State and in the representation of the citizens’ legitimate expectations. The role of this Parliament is, for this reason, decisive in the determination of the future of Angola.

The values in which we believe – freedom, respect for human dignity, the rule of law, justice, and equality of opportunities – are a factor of progress and approach and of the strengthening of cooperation between countries.

Mister Speaker,
Members of Parliament,

Angolan reality is nowadays characterized by the examples of dynamism and creativity present in all sectors of society.

In the economic field, Angola has recorded, in the last few years, growth rates which are placed amongst the worlds’ highest, and this is reflected in the creation of increased opportunities of employment for its people and in increased possibilities for combating poverty and injustice.

The new Angolan reality is also the result of a growing international assertion, which causes it to be a fundamental player in Africa, particularly in Southern Africa, where it has performed an active role in the promotion of peace, stability and resolution of conflicts, such as has been the case in the region of the Great Lakes and in the Gulf of Guinea.

None of this would have been viable without the climate of confidence and stability that peace and national reconciliation made possible.

You, Mister Speaker, and the illustrious Members of Parliament are witnesses that Portugal has always sided with Angola in the difficult path directed towards peace and democracy. Portugal has always believed in the future of Angola and of the Angolans.

Our cooperation covers practically all the areas of activity, immediately beginning by the sectors defined as priority by the Angolan authorities: good governance, institutional capacitating, staff training, combating poverty, education, scientific and technological research, health, and justice and food safety.

Allow me to gloss over education and training.

The Angolan authorities have been the first to underline that the maintenance of high growth rates in the economy demand qualified human resources, which strengthens the need, as a start, to bet on teaching and promotion of the Portuguese language. This is the purpose of the “Know More” programme – the first instance of a cooperation programme between two countries based on co-financing – already in operation in Benguela and in Namibe, but that we hope it may, in the short term, and in coordination with the Angolan authorities, be expanded to other Provinces.

We live, and this we cannot forget, in a world where knowledge has an active role in the promotion of competitiveness. Our cooperation must thus proceed and strengthen its drive in all the fields of knowledge.

In the economic area, excluding the oil and diamond sectors, Portugal is today the main investor in Angola, and it ranks as one of its main trading partners. Such as Angola is, today, an important investor in Portugal in relevant sectors of our economy.

Our entrepreneurs are amongst those who have been present longer in the Angolan market, contributing, due to their initiative and their enterprising capabilities, to job creation, wealth generation and to the country’s growth. But their action goes still further, stretching from the support provided to multiple initiatives and programmes in the social and cultural fields, including the training and capacitating of local cadres.

Angola’s development strategy also includes, nowadays, the promotion of a greater territorial cohesion, through economic diversification and the creation of conditions for the settling of peoples in the interior.

Our companies are already present in practically the whole territory, in partnership with Angolan counterparts. I believe, however, that there are reasons to look with redoubled attention at the opportunities that are offered by Angola’s bet on the development of the interior of the country, in sectors as vast as fisheries, cattle raising and food industries, forestry, and even hydro energy and bio-fuels.

I thus wished that my Visit should include in its programme visits to the provinces of Benguela and Huila, two examples, amongst others, that well illustrate what I have just stated.

But Angola’s current state of development also brings new challenges, in answer to which, I am certain, we could develop increased cooperation. Amongst these are urban refurbishment, the development of manufacturing industry, of information and communication technologies, and even renewable energies. These are areas which allow us to face the strengthening of our cooperation with ambition and vision of the future.

A cooperation that must also extend to the setting up of partnerships directed towards benefiting from opportunities in third countries, specifically in the European Union and in Africa, particularly in Southern Africa. The Europeans know that we are better acquainted with Africa than any others and often demand us in order that we share our assessments with them, and hear us when they consider business options.

But this strengthening of our cooperation, which we are both desirous of, implies an adequate degree of juridical certainty. I want, for this reason, to emphasize the relevance of the Agreement on the Protection of Investments, signed by our two countries, in 2008, that is awaiting ratification by this Parliament to enter into force.

Portugal and Angola also share an identical conviction as to the advantages of a reinforced agreed policy regarding the international challenges of these times.

Mister Speaker,
Members of Parliament,

The values and principles that define our identity and that bring us so close find a particularly eloquent expression in this shared purpose that is the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries.

Portugal and Angola share the same determination in the deepening of CPLP, providing it with an increasingly relevant role in strengthening the cooperation between its Member States and in the projection of our interests and stances at international level.

Within three days, Angola will supplant Portugal in the Presidency of CPLP. I am certain that this Luanda Summit and the Angolan mandate which will soon commence will be a marker in the assertion of the priorities and objectives of our Community, thus contributing towards the strengthening of the solidarity between the Member States.

The Portuguese Presidency of CPLP elected the international promotion and projection of the Portuguese language as one of the priorities of its mandate. I want to express my thanks here for Angola’s contribution towards the achievement of this objective. The creativity which its peoples show in poetry and literature, in craftsmanship, in music and dancing, in theatre or in painting, is a clear example of the richness and cultural strength of our Community.

It is my firm conviction that a greater projection of the Portuguese language will contribute towards a greater international assertion of our countries. In this perspective, the Action Plan approved in Brasilia, is extremely relevant. Its adoption will allow that we advance yet more co-ordinately and determinedly in this issue. It will also allow taking better advantage of the International Institute of Portuguese Language, headquartered in Cape Verde, which I have recently visited.

The Portuguese Presidency also placed a strong emphasis in the promotion of cohesion between the CPLP Member States, in the deepening of the Portuguese speaking citizenship, in politico-diplomatic coordination and cooperation among the National Parliaments. These are objectives and priorities to which, I am certain, the Angolan Presidency will give the necessary continuity and in which it can continue to count upon Portugal’s support and endeavour.

I also want to take this opportunity to pay my tribute to the role the national Parliaments have been performing in the deepening of the democratic dimension and the approach between the peoples of our Community, and salute the creation of the Parliamentary Assembly, an important step in that direction.

Mister Speaker,
Members of Parliament,

I understand that the richness of our relationship, the strength of the bonds that link us, the much that we have jointly known how to build and, above all, the ambition and drive with which we face the future of our relations amply justify the institutional consecration of that which is already a veritable Strategic Partnership between our two countries.

A Partnership that, through its tools of technical and political dialogue, will allow us an easier resolution of pending issues and to draw courses for the future.

Mister Speaker,
Members of Parliament,

In the catalogue of the Luso-Angolan exhibition that I will have the opportunity to open this afternoon, in the Portuguese Cultural Centre, appears a quotation from the Angolan poet and anthropologist, born in Santarém, Ruy Duarte de Carvalho. He tells us “that which is crossed is loved, either because it evokes known emotions or because it is new and joins in the search”. That is how the Portuguese feel who cross this land and its peoples. That is how I feel.

Thank you very much.