Luanda, Dec. 3, 2024 (Lusa) - Angola's President João Lourenço said on Tuesday that he wanted to strengthen cooperation with the United States in the defence and security sector and attract more American direct investment to Angola.
João Lourenço was speaking at the Presidential Palace in Luanda during a meeting with his US counterpart, Joe Biden, the first US president to visit Angola.
"[The two countries have had political-diplomatic relations since 19 May 1993], which have been growing year after year, especially since in Angola we began the serious fight against corruption and impunity, and we are creating a better business environment," he said.
João Lourenço recalled that the former president, José Eduardo dos Santos, had been received at the White House by George Bush and Bill Clinton and thanked Biden for the "very friendly and warm way" he was received last year.
Noting that Biden's visit comes on the eve of Angola celebrating 50 years of independence, João Lourenço said that this unprecedented visit "buries a past" in the two countries' Cold War relations in which they were “not always” aligned and is “an important turning point”.
"We intend to work together to attract direct American investment to Angola, to open up trade and business opportunities for Angolan investors in the American market," Lourenço added.
João Lourenço intends, in particular, to increase cooperation in the defence and security sector, with more military training in Angola, more joint military exercises, cooperation in maritime security programmes to protect the Gulf of Guinea and the South Atlantic, and in the programme to re-equip and modernise the Angolan Armed Forces.
The Angolan president also spoke about the public investment projects supported by US financial entities, with companies such as SUN Africa, Africell, Mayfair Energy, Acrow Bridge, GATES Air, as well as oil companies and Amer-Con, in the construction of grain silos and collection points on platforms and parks along the Lobito Corridor and other points considered potential granaries for the country.
"Your vision and commitment to the success of the Lobito Corridor, as well as your great contribution to our energy transition programme with the construction of the solar parks in southern Angola, will always be remembered as a great contribution to food and energy security, to the economic and social development of Angola and the southern region of Africa," he told Joe Biden during the meeting at the Presidential Palace.
Lourenço also appealed to US investors to get involved in the construction of high-voltage power transmission lines under public-private partnerships for southern African countries, namely the "Copperbelt" region in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo and Namibia.
He added that Angola has also benefited from US support in health, with programmes to combat malaria, tuberculosis, HIV-AIDS, COVID-19, and space technology. It has acquired six Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes. The first deliveries are scheduled for early 2025.
RCR/ADB // ADB.
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