Luanda - The Venezuelan ambassador to Angola, Marlon Labrador, paid his farewell respects Thursday in Luanda to the speaker of the National Assembly (AN) Carolina Cerqueira, with the certainty of strengthened bilateral relations.

After five years representing his country in Angola, Marlon Labrador explained that the meeting served, in addition to say goodbye to his counterpart, to review the current state of bilateral cooperation and the major challenges facing the two countries in strengthening their economies.

The diplomat stressed need to make inter-parliamentary meetings more dynamic adding that Venezuela has already taken a significant step in this direction with the creation of a friendship group with Angola in April last year.

Labrador recalled that Venezuela will be holding elections on July 28 this year and hoped that cooperation between the two parliaments would reach the recommended levels.

Since 2005, Venezuela has maintained full diplomatic relations with the African continent, where Angola is seen as one of the most important partners.

Relations between the two countries were boosted by the visit of the Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to Angola in August 2006.

In July 2017, Venezuela and Angola signed two memoranda of understanding in Caracas to develop diamond mining in Venezuelan territory.

The agreements include cooperation to train professional Venezuelan miners in the production of diamonds at artisanal, semi-industrial and industrial levels, the optimization of processes for marketing rough diamonds, cutting, organizing, processing and streamlining procedures based on the Kimberley Process Certification System, which controls diamond exports and legal marketing on the international market. FMA/VIC/DAN/AMP