Luanda - The Speaker of the Angolan Parliament, Carolina Cerqueira, Tuesday in Luanda Province analysed parliamentary cooperation with the Speaker of the Portuguese Parliament, Augusto Santos Silva.
Speaking to the press at the end of a meeting with his Angolan counterpart, the Portuguese politician considered relations between the two parliaments to be excellent.
He recalled that in 2003 both parliaments signed the cooperation agreement that has been implemented in three-year programmes of activities.
According to him, this cooperation has a technical level between the services of the parliaments, as well as a political level between the parliamentarians, adding that it adds to the excellent cooperation that exists between the two countries at all levels.
"It's an excellent relationship that is felt both bilaterally and within the framework of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) and multilaterally in other organisations where the rule has been that Portugal and Angola have agreed on positions," he said.
The leader of the Parliament of the Republic of Portugal said he promised his Angolan counterpart that he will plan to visit Angola for a little longer.
The Speaker of the Angolan parliament, Carolina Cerqueira, visited Portugal this year to take part in International Parliamentarians' Day, which is celebrated annually on 30 June.
It corresponds to the creation of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in 1889, which brings together all the world's parliaments.
The data was established by Resolution 72/278 adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 22 May 2018.
João Lourenço invited to visit Portugal
Augusto Santos Silva expressed his happiness taking into account that the Angolan Head of State accepted the invitation to visit Portugal in 2024 to take part in the 50th anniversary of Portuguese democracy.
The parliamentarian said he is certain that reciprocal action would take place in 2025, the year in which Angola will also celebrate its 50th anniversary of independence.
Augusto Santos Silva, who is in Angola to take part in the 147th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), said that Angolan independence was fair, legitimate and inevitable.
"This is the first time that a Portuguese delegation from the IPU has been led by the Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic, which expresses the importance we attach to these General Assemblies held in Luanda," he said.
Angola and Portugal are part of the CPLP, which is a political consultation organisation in which the two countries can make valuable contributions in various areas of world diplomacy, given the responsibilities they have on their respective continents.
Cooperation relations between Portugal and Angola are based on a common cultural, legal and institutional level, as well as specific technical skills in the main development sectors.
Sharing a common language makes it easier to frame the intervention of Portuguese cooperation in Angola.
The institutional cooperation between the two states have been evolving in a dynamic way throughout the years, developing in the bilateral context through Strategic Cooperation Programmes (SCP) in line with the proposed programmes and projects and implemented annually with the collaboration of the ministries of the different sectors, local elections and civil society particularly of the Portuguese Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), whether in the multilateral context in connection with other cooperation partners in which includes European Union programmes such as delegated cooperation, to which Portugal also contributes as a member state, and the specialised agencies of the United Nations system.
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