Portugal: EU heads of diplomacy discuss Mozambique after Santos Silva’s visit

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Portugal: EU heads of diplomacy discuss Mozambique after Santos Silva’s visit

12:58 CAT | 25 Jan 2021

Map: BBC

Portugal: EU heads of diplomacy discuss Mozambique after Santos Silvas visit
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Brussels, Jan. 25, 2021 (Lusa) – Portugal’s foreign minister, Augusto Santos Silva, on Monday is to report to his European counterparts on the results of last week’s visit to Mozambique, one of the items on the agenda at the Council of EU heads of diplomacy.

The armed insurgency in Cabo Delgado province, which led EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell to ask the Portuguese minister to travel to Mozambique on his behalf, is one of the many items on the agenda of the meeting that the heads of diplomacy of the 27 are holding in Brussels on Monday, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last Thursday, at the end of his visit to Mozambique, the head of Portuguese diplomacy considered that all the political objectives of the visit had been fulfilled, namely to express “European solidarity” given the humanitarian crisis, to thank the readiness to welcome the political mission and to hear from the Mozambican authorities the assessment of the situation and the report of needs.

Pointing out that he would today inform his EU counterparts of the key areas for support to Mozambique identified together with the Mozambican authorities – military training, support for humanitarian action to the population and support to the agency for development in the north of the country – Santos Silva said he hoped that as soon as possible the programme to strengthen cooperation will be designed, approved and in a position to be implemented.

The armed violence in Mozambique’s northern province, where the largest private multinational investment in Africa is taking place, for the exploitation of natural gas, is causing a humanitarian crisis with over 2,000 deaths and 560,000 displaced people, without housing or food, which has led the Mozambican authorities to ask the EU for help.

In addition to the situation in Cabo Delgado, the heads of diplomacy of the 27 have a full agenda at their first meeting of the year, which is foreign policy – under the High Representative since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty – and unlike the other Council formations, it is not led by the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council, but by Josep Borrell.

The main item on the official agenda is climate and energy diplomacy, but ministers will address several ‘current affairs’ such as the arrest of Alexei Navalny in Russia, the situation in Hong Kong, the Horn of Africa and Venezuela, and an exchange of views with Japan’s foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi, who will join the meeting by videoconference.

On Tuesday, Augusto Santos Silva will present the foreign policy priorities of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council – which runs until the end of June – to the European Parliament’s parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee.

ACC/IMYN // ADB.

Source: Lusa