President Lula’s Speech During the Council of Ministers in Luanda (Angola)
My dear President and friend,
This is my first State visit to an African country during this third term as President.
It is a special moment that symbolizes Brazil’s return to Africa.
We have begun with a country that has always been our most important bridge to the sister continent.
Over recent years, Brazil has treated African countries with indifference.
For the first time since redemocratization, we had a president who did not visit Africa.
Brazilian embassies were closed.
Cooperation was abandoned.
We no longer worked together in international forums.
Let’s fix these mistakes and take our strategic partnership to new levels.
Brazil wants to support Angola in its effort to diversify its economy.
Our trade can be broader and more diverse.
Bilateral exchange has dropped dramatically since 2015; in the first half of this year alone, however, it has already increased by almost 65% compared to the same period in 2022.
In the past, we have supported Angola in strategic fields such as infrastructure and energy. Brazil was present in Angola even during the civil war.
President João Lourenço told me that, now, his priority is to carry out an agricultural revolution to ensure economic growth and food security for the population of Angola.
Brazil is the ideal partner – we face similar challenges and presently have knowledge, technologies, and public policies to share.
We’re going to develop a joint action plan to be carried out by our ministries of Agriculture.
We are developing a program in the Cunene Valley that will become a new paradigm in our cooperation with Africa.
Instead of one-off initiatives, the program will include 25 actions that complement each other to promote the region’s agricultural development.
This will include everything from agricultural research to training for implementing credit policies for small producers.
The Cunene Valley is similar to Brazil’s São Francisco Valley – a region historically affected by droughts and that has now become a food production hub.
We will look for partners in the Brazilian private sector to complete the necessary irrigation structure in Cunene.
As countries harboring tropical rainforests, Brazil and Angola must find sustainable development solutions that reconcile environmental protection with the well-being and prosperity of their populations.
Angola can join the efforts that we initiated at the Amazon Summit in Belem, at the beginning of the month.
We can work together within the scope of the climate, biodiversity, and desertification COPs.
Fair transition offers us new paths.
Last May, production began at the first green pig iron steel plant in the province of Cuando Cubango, based on the charcoal produced from reforestation of 60,000 hectares of degraded lands.
Our efforts in the field of tourism are going in the same direction. In association with Angola, Brazilian hotel enterprises will bring sustainable practices such as seawater desalination, solid waste treatment, and recycling.
In the health field, we have resumed two fronts that have a significant impact. We have strengthened Hansen’s disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment policies in Angola.
Moreover, Angola’s first drug factory will result from a consortium of three Brazilian companies and the Private Investment and Export Promotion Agency (AIPEX).
The beginning of operations has been scheduled for 2025; the drug factory will create 280 jobs and allow Angola to meet its local demand and export to other African markets.
In education, the Escola de Todos project will expand access, permanence, and learning for all students within the Angolan education system, including people with disabilities.
Science and research will be part of our cooperation.
Our data processing and information technology agencies will develop software through extensive sharing of intellectual capital.
Angola is capable of becoming an EMBRAER Defesa hub in Africa. Acquiring aircraft such as the KC390 and revitalizing the Tucano and Super Tucano fleets would result in technology transfer.
The Brazilian naval industry is capable of supporting the modernization of Angola’s Navy.
We have also addressed financing Brazilian export operations, which is essential to leveraging our economic partnership.
Our technical teams are discussing establishing new lines of credit, which will create jobs and income in Brazil and contribute to the development of Angola.
Dialogue between Brazil and Angola will once again address regional and global issues.
I congratulate President João Lourenço for being awarded the title of “Leader of Peace and Reconciliation” by the African Union for his role in the dialogue between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
The war in Ukraine has a strong impact on food security in Africa. The mission of African leaders to Russia and Ukraine was a positive step towards starting to think about peace.
I congratulate Angola for the CPLP presidency and the creation of an economic cooperation board within the organization. We’ll be together in two days at the CPLP Summit in São Tomé and Príncipe.
The continent needs more representation in international forums.
I have invited Angola to participate in the G20 meetings during the Brazilian presidency – which will start in December.
I reiterated to President João Lourenço that Brazil’s relationship with Angola is a State policy that does not depend on circumstances.
We will continue to strengthen our partnership so that in 2025 we may celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations between Brazil and Angola with a comprehensive and substantive agenda.
My dear friend João Lourenço,
Our history of solidarity and cooperation points towards a shared future.
We will continue to work together, united by the vast South Atlantic.
I have said wherever I go that Brazil is back to the world.
Today, I can say that we are back in Angola. In the words of Agostinho Neto himself:
“To our lands
Red with coffee
White with cotton
Green with maize fields
We shall return.
We shall return
To liberated Angola
Independent Angola.”
Thank you very much.