The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation said today that the fifth bilateral summit between Portugal and Mozambique, in July, will be a "good opportunity" to review the strategic cooperation plan between the two countries.
This summit will be a good opportunity to review the strategic cooperation programme, which has already ended, and also to work on and look towards the future," said Francisco André.
The Portuguese Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (SENEC) was speaking in Maputo after a meeting with Mozambique’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Manuel Gonçalves, to prepare for the summit.
According to him, the new cooperation programme between the two countries, which will also be discussed at the summit, will focus on education, health and the environment, considered "fundamental areas".
The Portuguese official also said the summit should "assess and underline" military cooperation between Mozambique and Portugal, mainly to "express total and unequivocal solidarity" in the face of the terrorist threat in northern Mozambique.
"We want this to be a summit with substantial content that clearly demonstrates this relationship, which both countries describe as excellent at diplomatic, political and economic levels," he said.
Asked by journalists, SENEC did not wish to confirm the dates, although Mozambican Mateus Magala, in his capacity as vice-president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), told Lusa in May that the meeting would take place between 11 and 13 July.
The initiative will also serve to launch the Lusophone Compact, a programme through which Portugal provides financial guarantees of 400 million euros for investments in Portuguese-speaking African countries — although Magala has since been appointed Minister of Transport and Communications.
The bilateral summit between Portugal and Mozambique had been scheduled for 4 and 5 November 2021, but was postponed following the rejection of Portugal’s 2022 State Budget, which led to the dissolution of parliament and the calling of early legislative elections.
