CPLP: Angola’s defence minister stresses importance of cooperation

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CPLP: Angola’s defence minister stresses importance of cooperation

1:32 CAT | 31 May 2023

Angola’s minister of defence and veterans, João Ernesto dos Santos, noted in Luanda on Tuesday the importance of cooperation in the defence sector within the Community of Portuguese-language Countries (CPLP).

“We are certain that the defence and security committees aim to promote world peace and stability, so they should be the standard to be displayed and praised in the face of present and future challenges,” the minister said at the opening ceremony of the 22nd meeting of defence ministers of the CPLP, in Luanda.

“The ties that link our countries and peoples have been intensifying on the basis of respect for the sovereignty and independence of each, in the interest of mutually proficient cooperation,” he added.

João dos Santos ‘Liberdade’ also stressed the importance of cooperation and coordination between the CPLP countries in promoting security and defence for all and gave as an example Angola’s readiness to send “contingents and logistical support” to Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.

“When it was necessary, we were and remain ready to help the member states of the community, sending military contingents and logistical support when the situation so required, as was the case of the Angolan mission to support the reform of the humanitarian sector in Guinea-Bissau,” he said. The country currently presides over the CPLP.

“And in Mozambique, when it was ravaged by Cyclone Idai and currently in the province of Cabo Delgado, where we have a military component, which is limited to its actions in the command post of auxiliary operations Information for the Armed Forces of the Defence of Mozambique, as well as in the projection of force of member states of the SADC [Southern African Development Community] in support of the process of pacification and stability of that part of the Mozambican territory,” he added.

João Ernesto dos Santos recalled that on 29 March, Angolan deputies had approved President João Lourenço’s request for authorisation to extend the Angolan military’s stay in Mozambique for a further three months.

“In the history of the recent past, there are records of coexistence between our peoples who are naturally determined or destined to share a common future of solidarity and mutual aid, made easier by the language and the defence of common values,” he stressed.

João Ernesto dos Santos also noted that over the 25 years of existence of cooperation in the defence sector of the CPLP, Angola “has presented multiple initiatives of progressive and mutually advantageous cooperation in the field of defence, with its counterpart ministries and respective Armed Forces,” which, he concluded, “have contributed to cohesion in the performance of our institutions.

The Angolan minister also noted the holding of “Felino” exercises, two editions of which were held in Angola, and which aim, above all, to prepare the staff of a Joint and Combined Task Force (FTCC), in the context of the CPLP, to achieve, maintain and optimise the capacity to participate in missions of Peace Support and Humanitarian Assistance, at operational and tactical levels.

“They were a valuable contribution in consolidating the project of our community,” he summarised.

The CPLP includes Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste.