Rio de Janeiro – The Angolan minister of Foreign Affairs, Téte António, stated on Tuesday that Angola's presidency of the African Union (2025) will closely follow South Africa's mandate in the G20 group.
The government official was speaking to the press after the end of the G20 Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), from 18 to 19 November, in which Angola participated with a delegation led by the Head of State, João Lourenço, at Brazil's invitation.
Téte António said that as Chair of the African Union (AU), the Angolan Head of State will speak on behalf of the organization within the tradition and principle of the AU's common position.
This is a practice originated and implemented at the Rio+20 meeting on sustainable development, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, also used when negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on various themes.
“It is this style that must prevail in the G20. Only in this way will we be able to reflect the interests of those we represent”, highlighted the head of Angolan diplomacy.
Regarding the country's participation, as a guest, at the G20 Summit, he made it known that the first objective achieved was to get the message across about the perspectives, and, above all, what the country is doing in terms of the Summit's dominant themes (combat hunger and poverty, energy transition and Reform of Global Governance Institutions).
The second goal was achieved with the host country linked by historical factors to Angola, which would like to continue to deepen the relationship, he stated, adding that the meeting between the two statesmen reached this objective.
According to the minister, other concrete steps can now be taken taking into account Brazil's imperatives in terms of development and Angola's interests, with one of the areas focused on being agriculture.
He announced the visit to Angola of the Brazilian minister of Agriculture with the sector's businesspeople.
Regarding Brazil's presidency of the G20, he considered it excellent, with numerous sectoral meetings of various types in around 15 Brazilian cities, opening the country to the world
For Téte António, it was a summit with a “very human face” taking into account the social matter, namely the launch of the World Alliance against Hunger; Energy Transition; Reform of Global Governance Institutions.
Regarding food security, he said that two schools of thought stood out, one that defends the opening of the market to solve the hunger and poverty issue and the other that believes that, on its own the market cannot face today's great challenges of extreme poverty and hunger in the world.
It means that states have a duty to protect these social layers, with the need for a combination of efforts to achieve these objectives, he declared.
With regard to the Reform of International Institutions, what was behind the end of the League of Nations, mother of the United Nations, was recalled, he said, considering that the causes are exactly the same and are repeating.
It was considered necessary to ensure that the United Nations did not become obsolete and that they must play a role, allowing this multilateral system to face the “lack of action in the face of conflicts as atrocious as the case of Palestine”.
According to the minister, the topic of women's empowerment was also highlighted, witnessing a very productive transition in South Africa, which will assume the presidency of the G20, which closely followed Brazil's mandate.
He added that South Africa has already determined that the focus of its term will be on economic inclusivity, covering environmental issues.
Another focus is food security, a continuation of Brazil's presidential program, but S.A would also like to place an emphasis on AI, the minister said who considered it a great challenge to succeed Brazil, which “had a very agile presidency”.
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