Portugal’s Defence Minister visits Mozambique at invitation of counterpart

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Portugal’s Defence Minister visits Mozambique at invitation of counterpart

12:00 CAT | 08 Dec 2020

File photo: Lusa

The Portuguese Defence Minister Gomes Cravinho will meet his Mozambican counterpart, Jaime Bessa Neto, in Maputo on Wednesday as part of a working visit on bilateral cooperation area and relations between Europe and Africa.

The visit aims to address cooperation in the field of defence between the two countries, within the scope of the negotiation of a new framework programme, a communique from the Ministry of National Defense of Portugal reads, noting that the current military cooperation agreement between Portugal and Mozambique was signed in 1988.

Another topic at the meeting will be “the priority given by the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union (PPUE), which will start in January 2021, to the strengthening of security and defence relations between Europe and Africa”, the note adds.

The last visit of a Portuguese defence minister to Mozambique was in February 2018, when Azeredo Lopes visited.

On the 27th of November, the Portuguese Minister of Defence said that the Portuguese presidency of the European Union would prioritise the strengthening of the partnership with Africa in matters of peace and security, aiming to stop the “increasing instability and violence” in the continent.

Speaking at a defence seminar in Lisbon, Gomes Cravinho underlined the importance of a European partnership with the African continent “in matters of peace and security”.

Talking to journalists two days earlier, on November 25, João Gomes Cravinho had admitted the possibility of Portugal sending military forces to help Mozambique combat terrorism in Cabo Delgado, as authorities in the country intend, highlighting the Portuguese Armed Forces’ experience in the area of training, including in Mozambique.

“Portugal is available. Mozambique is a sister country of the CPLP (Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries), a country to which we feel close and are obviously always available. Firstly, it is up to the Mozambican authorities to establish what they see as useful. Portugal is completely available,” Gomes Cravinho said.

Cravinho underlined that “Portugal has multiple valences that have been visible” in the National Deployed Forces, and underlined that his country has “a long experience of working with Mozambique”.

“There is also a dialogue with the European Union (EU) and, if there is an EU mission, naturally Portugal would participate, but we have our bilateral cooperation, which will continue and will certainly be strengthened in this area,” he concluded.

Armed violence in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, is causing a humanitarian crisis with an estimated 2,000 killed and 500,000 displaced, without adequate housing or food, mainly to the area surrounding in the provincial capital, Pemba.

The province, where Africa’s largest private investment, in natural gas, is ongoing, has been under attack by insurgents for three years, with some of the incursions, since 2019, claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Source: Lusa