Luanda - Angola and Norway hope to further strengthen their already "strong" bilateral relations ahead of the state visit the President João Lourenço will make to the Nordic country.
By Frederico Issuzo
This is the first visit of its kind in the history of long-standing relations between the two countries, four years after the first official visit of a Norwegian head of government to Angola, Prime Minister, Erna Solberg.
At the time, Solberg recalled that, historically, relations between the two countries are based on Norwegian solidarity with Angola's struggle against colonialism and apartheid, as part of broader support for liberation of all of southern Africa.
However, in the 1970s, in Norway and other Scandinavian countries, such as Denmark, Sweden and Finland, several grassroots movements emerged in support of liberation struggles in southern Africa, including Angola.
Once independence was achieved, Solberg said, this support continued in the form of development assistance, which has broadened the scope of bilateral relations with Angola over the past 20 years, putting emphasis on policy dialogue and business partnerships to reach current levels.
Main lines of cooperation
Bilateral cooperation between Angola and Norway has materialised mainly in the politico-diplomatic and economic-commercial field.
Politically, the two countries are linked by 45 years of diplomatic relations dating back to the beginnings of independence on November 11, 1975, which places Norway among the first Western countries to recognise the national sovereignty of Angola.
After the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1977, Norway has been physically represented in Luanda for 25 years, with an embassy also responsible for Norwegian interests, in Sao Tome and Principe.
It is also the embassy in Luanda which, until recently, represented Norway in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) before the transformation of its branch in Kinshasa into a full-fledged diplomatic mission.
In Luanda, Norway is represented by Portugal for granting visitor visas, while residence and student visas are handled by the Norwegian Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa.
