Luanda - The ambassador of the United Arab Emirates accredited to Angola, Salem Al Shansi, said Thursday in Luanda that the cooperative relations between his country and Angola were excellent.
The diplomat was speaking to the press at the end of a meeting with the president of the National Assembly, Carolina Cerqueira, during which they discussed, among other things, aspects related to strengthening cooperation and the importance of parliamentary relations.
Carolina Cerqueira also took the opportunity to formalize an invitation to the ambassador and his delegation to the 147th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which the country is hosting from the 23rd to the 27th of this month, which was promptly accepted.
According to Salem Al Shansi, the arrival of a delegation from the United Arab Emirates to take part in a major event in this field for the first time is a "good start for building relations between the parliamentary institutions of the two countries".
"This is a good sign that the two institutions can have good co-operation and partnership here," he said, stating that, as a general rule, Angola and the United Arab Emirates enjoy good relations and continue to work towards strengthening them.
He referred to the fact that several companies from his country had been investing in Angola and cited the United Arab Emirates Airlines as an example, as well as the satellite provider agency, indicating that efforts were being made to increase their investment in different areas.
As for trade relations, he said that the non-oil sector had reached around 45 per cent, which on his country's side amounts to an investment of around three billion dollars.
Salem Al Shansi said that these had gone well until Covid-19, and that since then there had been a series of contacts to see if business delegations could reinvest in Angola.
Salem Al Shansi also mentioned the recently-organized Chamber of Commerce between the two countries, a forum that he hopes will contribute to a greater scale of trade in the near future.
Diplomatic relations
Diplomatic relations between the Republic of Angola and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were established on 11 December 1997, and were officially formalized with the opening of the Angolan Embassy in Abu Dhabi on 21 September 2008, and reinforced with the opening of that country's embassy in Luanda on 1 August 2016.
Bilateral relations reached a new level with the first state visit by the then President of the Republic of Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, and the signing of the General Agreement on Economic, Commercial, Industrial, Technological, Financial and Political Cooperation on 4 June 2015.
Trade
Trade between the two countries is estimated at USD 1.5 billion, according to the president of the Angolan Chamber of Commerce and Industry-EAU, Bráulio Martins, who was speaking on the sidelines of the second edition of the Angola Global Business Forum, held from 28 to 30 September in Luanda. VC/SC/DAN/DOJ
