At its independence day celebration in Cairo, Angola’s ambassador hailed five decades of nation-building and traced ties with Egypt back to Cairo’s support for African liberation
Angola celebrated 51 years of independence in Cairo on Wednesday, with its ambassador to Egypt, Maquento Sebastião Lopes, paying tribute to the founders of the Angolan nation and hailing a “friendship that preceded the formal establishment of diplomatic relations” with Egypt, which turn 50 this year.
The two countries established relations in February 1976, three months after António Agostinho Neto proclaimed Angola’s independence from Portugal on 11 November 1975. Lopes recalled Egypt’s support, rooted in pan-Africanism, African solidarity and the right to self-determination, for liberation movements across the continent, which he said helped affirm the values of independence and sovereignty the two nations share today.
Fifty-one years of nation-building
Lopes traced the events that led to independence, which he said fulfilled an ideal for which successive generations of Angolans had fought, some at the cost of their lives. Fifty-one years on, Angola stands as a sovereign and respected state committed to peace, development and international co-operation, he said.
The celebrations were held under the slogan “United for a Democratic, One and Indivisible Angola”. Lopes said that over five decades Angola had secured peace, strengthened its institutions, rebuilt the country and widened access to education and health care, while playing a growing role in promoting stability and security in Africa.
The ambassador said the slogan expressed Angolans’ commitment to national unity, democracy, the rule of law and the defence of the country’s sovereignty. Egypt’s deputy assistant foreign minister for Southern Africa, Ambassador Khaled Aref, speaking on behalf of Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, congratulated President João Lourenço and the Angolan people, saying that since 1975 Angola had written “a remarkable story of resilience, unity and progress”.
Two presidents, one continental agenda
Lopes credited Presidents João Lourenço and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi with giving the relationship new momentum. Regular dialogue between the two leaders had built political trust and opened new areas of co-operation, he said, pointing to their shared views on Africa’s development, peace and stability, and economic integration. He cited the institutionalisation of the Angola-Egypt Bilateral Commission as proof of a will to turn good political relations into tangible gains.
That convergence was on display last month in New Alamein, where Lourenço, who chairs the heads of state committee of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), co-chaired a summit of the agency’s founding states with Sisi.
With Africa accelerating its economic integration, Lopes said Angola and Egypt were well placed to build partnerships in agriculture, industry, infrastructure, transport, energy, water and mineral resources, technology and skills. “The complementarity of our economies and the quality of our political relations offer solid foundations for an even more promising future,” he said.
Aref said Cairo was encouraging Egyptian firms to invest in Angola’s infrastructure, housing, urban development and agriculture, and hoped its oil and gas companies would enter the Angolan market, offering to share Egypt’s experience in building gas networks.
Celebrations in Cairo
The embassy screened a documentary, “Angola and Egypt: 50 Years Building the Future”, to guests from the Egyptian government, the diplomatic corps, academia, business and the Angolan community in Egypt.
Earlier in the day, Angolan diplomats laid a wreath at the bust of Agostinho Neto in Heroes’ Park in Zamalek, unveiled in September as part of the anniversary celebrations. Aref said the monument now held a lasting place in the heart of the Egyptian capital, a symbol, he said, of the brotherhood between the two peoples, who also share a love of football.
He closed with a toast to Egyptian-Angolan friendship and to African unity.
