Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi held bilateral talks with Angolan President João Lourenço at the presidential palace in Angola’s capital, Luanda.
These discussions were followed by an extended session attended by delegations from both nations, all part of President Sisi’s current visit to the Republic of Angola.
Ahmed Fahmi, the official spokesperson for the Egyptian presidency, said President Lourenço warmly welcomed President Sisi’s visit to Angola as part of his African tour.
Angola appreciates this inaugural visit from an Egyptian President and highly values President Sisi’s active role in addressing African issues. This is particularly relevant regarding efforts to drive the continent’s development and protect peace and security.
Angola confirmed its eagerness to collaborate with Egypt in confronting the many challenges facing Africa, which require the combination of African efforts through the activation of mechanisms for joint African work, particularly at the level of the African Union.
President Lourenço emphasized the depth of the historical and extensive relations between the two brotherly countries on various official and popular fronts. He underscored the importance of developing various frameworks for joint cooperation, especially in economic and commercial aspects, as well as benefiting from Egypt’s capabilities, broad experience, and successful experiments in several fields. These include infrastructure development, the construction of new cities, pharmaceutical manufacturing, the establishment of bridge and road projects, and tourism.
The official spokesperson explained that during the discussions, President Sisi expressed his pleasure at visiting Angola for the first time. He emphasized the importance Egypt attaches to maximizing coordination and consultation with the Angolan side, and President Lourenço, concerning ways to enhance mechanisms for joint African work, whether institutional, political, or developmental, contributing to achieving the growth and stability aspired to by African countries.
President Sisi also expressed Egypt’s pride in the fraternal relations linking it with Angola in its various dimensions, especially Egypt’s role in supporting development efforts in Angola through providing technical support programs and capacity-building for the preparation of Angolan cadres.
He particularly praised Angola’s economic growth pace as one of the successful models in the African continent, noting Egypt’s interest in increasing the volume of trade and investment between the two countries, and enhancing the role of the Egyptian business sector in the Angolan market in various fields in the coming period.
The spokesperson said the talks also addressed several regional files and issues of common interest, including overall developments in different conflict hotspots on the continent, particularly Sudan, and ways to join efforts between the two countries to combat the phenomenon of terrorism and extremist thought in Africa.
This is to be achieved especially through strengthening security cooperation between the concerned authorities in both countries, in coordination with related continental efforts, to confront this cross-border scourge. The talks also addressed the issue of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, where the importance of reaching a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam in accordance with international law was stressed, taking into account the concerns of the relevant parties.
At the conclusion of the discussions, the two presidents witnessed the signing of two memoranda of understanding for cooperation in the fields of security cooperation and the utilization of groundwater. This was followed by a joint press conference between the two presidents.