Luanda - National Assembly Speaker Carolina Cerqueira Monday expressed gratitude for the solidarity of the Cuban people to all causes of the Angolan nation, especially in the most difficult moments of its history.
Carolina Cerqueira expressed the recognition while delivering her speech in the Parliament during the visit of the Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez to Angola.
The Parliament leader said Cuban people have always provided clear evidence of solidarity and fraternal friendship to all causes of the Angolan Nation.
She said the freedom and independence of Angola have an indissoluble mark of the tenacity and courage of the two peoples and cost the sacrifice of the heroes of both countries "who share unspeakable historical ties".
In her address, the Speaker said that the Angolan State began to be built in a difficult and hostile environment, with the unconditional support of the Cuban people being decisive "to cool down the antagonistic interests forged by an internal conflict that was at the service of interests of the international orbit (...)".
"Our Cuban brothers, on the other side of the Atlantic, thousands of miles away, crossing the Atlantic to unknown African lands and under the motto "Vida ou Muerte", did not hesitate to stand shoulder to shoulder with the resilient Angolan people in the fight for freedom and the proclamation, on November 11, 1975, of national independence, hard won", she stressed.
She said Angola had become a true epicenter of the Cold War in Africa, for whom the battles fought with the support of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba made it possible to contain the creation of neocolonial satellite States in the Southern Region of Africa and the liberation of the people of Namibia and South Africa under the apartheid regime.
Carolina Cerqueira pointed out that the heroic trajectory of Cuban support at that time made an important incursion into the most precarious and crucial moments in Angola's history.
The National Assembly Speaker highlighted the processes of diplomatic negotiation and defensive military interventions such as Operation Carlota, the battles of N'Tó, Ebo, Kifangondo, Lucena, Camgamba and Cuito Cuanavale, among others, which were decisive for the end of the presence of the Apartheid and for the independence of Namibia.
She highlighted the fact that Cuba, despite finding itself in a climate of economic difficulties, due to an international embargo, which she condemned, does not hesitate to express its international spirit in favour of the defence of the peoples of the whole world.
Before the Plenary, she paid tribute to "the noble sons of the Cuban homeland" who perished.
The leader emphasized that, as representatives of the people, they must honour political, diplomatic, economic and cultural ties, "in the sense of strengthening them and implementing their application in an environment of good and healthy coexistence".
Inter-parliamentary cooperation
Carolina Cerqueira expressed the readiness of the Angolan Parliament to continue to boost and strengthen inter-parliamentary cooperation and ties between the two peoples, through the Angola and Cuba Friendship groups.
The Parliament Speaker promised the Cuban Statesman the support of Angolan MPs, "who will continue to mobilise all efforts to, within the framework of Parliamentary diplomacy, reinforce the mechanisms of regular consultation and exchange of experiences at political and national parliamentary administration level.
The solemn extraordinary plenary session was witnessed by representatives of the Association of Angolan former students in the Republic of Cuba. DC/AL/ADR/NIC
