Angola and Nigeria to Strengthen Bilateral Ties

Angola has expressed its desire to strengthen its collaborative efforts with Nigeria on a bilateral level. Téte António, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Angola, conveyed this intention during his recent visit to Nigeria in Abuja. He shared this information with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday.

António’s visit was motivated by his mission to extend an invitation from the Angolan President, João Lourenço, to President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria. This invitation is for the upcoming routine discussions among African leaders, both bilaterally and multilaterally. These consultations are scheduled to take place in November in Angola, which is situated in Southern Africa.

António held discussions with Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, during his visit. He revealed that President Lourenço’s message had been effectively communicated to President Tinubu through Minister Tuggar. While the exact contents of the message remain undisclosed to António, the two ministers discussed enhancing the diplomatic ties between Angola and Nigeria. This would involve fostering the existing cooperative relationship between the two nations and also revisiting the legal agreements that have been previously established.

This will enable both countries, “to see how we are implementing them and to see which new ones we have, and we can bring in again”.

It will also help on “how to create suitable environment for business people to ba a part of this bilateral ties existing between Angola and Nigeria.

“As ministers of foreign affairs and external relations, we discussed the peace and security situations in the Sahel and other parts, including Central Africa, Great lakes and Sudan.”

He mentioned that such were actually challenges for the continent, as well as constitutional changes that happened in West Africa and recently, in Gabon.

He explained that their discussion centered on multilateral issues and on ways both countries could support each other in Angola-Nigeria multilateral systems.

“Bearing in mind that a very good relationship exists between our countries, we actually have duties as ministers of foreign affairs to deepen ties.

“We also discussed ways we can make diplomatic relations of Angola and Nigeria not only matter of diplomats and politicians, but matter of people, including the business community.

“We have a very vibrant Nigerian economy in Angola which is very active in helping the country to rebuild itself of 27 years of war and they are contributing a lot.

“We are certainly going to work closely together, to also make sure we facilitate tackling issues such as the visas for business to business community.

“Certainly, in our next meeting we will plan; today we have discussed the joint commission, this is where we go and review everything, also for business forum between Angola and Nigeria,” he said.

The envoy assured of the provision of suitable environment for business communities to interact and encourage people to know more of each other’s national interests.

The Angolan minister, however, allayed fears about differences in language between the two countries as communication barrier.

He said: “We can always find a common language to speak and the common language are the ties.”

(NAN)