President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has held bilateral talks with the Angolan President João Lourenço at the presidential palace in the Angolan capital, Luanda. This was followed by an extensive discussion, in the presence of the delegations of the two countries, as part of President El-Sisi’s current visit to the Republic of Angola. The official ceremonial welcome was held for the President and the guard of honor was reviewed.
The Spokesman for the Presidency, Counselor Ahmed Fahmy, stated that Angolian President Lourenço welcomed President El-Sisi’s visit to Angola as part of his Africa tour and expressed Angola’s appreciation of this visit as President El-Sisi is the first Egyptian President to visit it. He also praised the President’s active role in addressing African issues, especially with regards to promoting development and maintaining peace and security in the continent. President Lourenço affirmed Angola’s aspiration to work with Egypt to address the many challenges facing the continent, which require African efforts to be confronted by activating joint action mechanisms, particularly at the African Union level.
The Angolan President also referred to the deep historical relations between the two fraternal countries at various levels, at the official and grass-root levels, stressing the need to develop various frameworks for joint cooperation, in particular, the economic and trade aspects. This is in addition to benefiting from Egypt’s potential, broad and successful experience in many areas, including infrastructure development, the construction of new cities, pharmaceutical manufacturing, the construction of bridges and road projects, and tourism.
President El-Sisi expressed his pleasure at visiting Angola for the first time. He stressed the importance Egypt attaches to maximize coordination and consultation with the Angolan side and President Lourenço on ways to strengthen the mechanisms of joint African action, whether at the institutional, political or development levels, in order to contribute to the growth and stability which African States aspire to achieve.
The President also expressed Egypt’s pride in its fraternal relations with Angola at many levels, particularly regarding Egypt’s role in supporting Angola’s development efforts through the provision of technical support and capacity-building programs to prepare Angolan cadres. He also commended Angola’s pace of economic growth as one of the successful models on the African continent, noting Egypt’s interest in increasing the volume of trade and investment between the two countries and strengthening the role of the Egyptian business sector in the Angolan market in various areas in the coming period.
The discussions also touched upon a number of regional files and issues of common interest, particularly Sudan. They also discussed ways of having concerted efforts between the two countries to combat the phenomenon of terrorism and extremism on the African continent, particularly through enhanced security cooperation between the relevant agencies of the two countries and in coordination with relevant continental efforts to address that transboundary scourge. The discussions also addressed the issue of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. In this regard, the importance of reaching a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam, in accordance with the rules of international law and the concerns of the relevant parties, was emphasized.
At the end of the talks, the leaders witnessed the signing of memorandums of understanding for cooperation in the areas of security cooperation and utilization of groundwater. This was followed by a joint press conference between the two presidents.
