Mozambique: Renamo dissidents dismiss National Council meeting
Brazil and Mozambique relaunch cooperation
11:48 CAT | 25 Nov 2025
Lula was speaking in Maputo on Monday after accepting the award of an Honorary Degree from Maputo’s Pedagogical University. [Photo: AIM]
Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva declared on Monday in Maputo that his two day working visit to Mozambique marks “the resumption of a story that should never have been interrupted”.
He was speaking after accepting the award of an Honorary Degree from Maputo’s Pedagogical University.
Lula’s visit was marked by the signing of nine new cooperation agreements and the restatement of an undertaking to deepen bilateral relations in strategic sectors.
At the Monday ceremony, host President Daniel Chapo stressed the “enormous admiration” of the Mozambican people for Lula. He said the meeting was occurring in a highly symbolic year, in which Mozambique is celebrating the 50th anniversary of independence and half a century of diplomatic relations with Brazil.
Chapo said the fact that Lula had accepted an invitation sent only two weeks ago shows “the commitment to strengthen relations of friendship, solidarity and cooperation”. He added that the new stage in cooperation will prioritise sectors such as health, agriculture, transport and logistics, infrastructures, mining and the exploitation of natural gas.
Chapo said that Mozambique hopes to learn from the Brazilian experience, particularly how Brazil had made the transition from a net importer to a net exporter of food.
He said the participation of Brazil’s National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) will be determinant for structuring Mozambique’s own development bank. “The wide-ranging experience of the BNDES”, he said, “is very important for structuring projects that promote sustainable and inclusive growth”.
Lula lamented that, after a period of close approximation between Brazil and Africa, Brazil had “lost its way on dark paths and forgot about its ties with Africa”, and this had prevented the consolidation of various bilateral initiatives. Although he did not mention his name, Lula was presumably thinking of the brief period when the extreme right, in the shape of Jair Bolsonaro had occupied the Brazilian presidency.
Hence, a new “diplomatic awakening” was necessary, he declared. The nine agreements he had just signed, said Lula, seek to strengthen Mozambican capacities in such areas as health, education, business, civil aviation, trade promotion and legal assistance.
Lula believes that positive international cooperation is only possible and fair when it is based on solidarity, and respect for the dignity and sovereignty of each country.
Lula declared “we believe that the fight against poverty and hunger must be at the centre of our development projects.”
He claimed that “hunger is not a lack of food, it is a lack of justice; it is the result of misguided political decisions, historical inequalities, and economic systems that concentrate income and opportunities.”
He stated that Brazil is a country that understands what hunger is and how to overcome this scourge.
“We made the fight against poverty an obsession”, he said, “with programmes like Zero Hunger. When I reassumed the Presidency in 2023, I made the fight against hunger a priority. At that time, 33 million Brazilians stopped going hungry. In just two years, we adopted appropriate public policies and political determination to include the poor in the budget. That’s how Brazil left the UN Hunger Map”, he said.
Lula highlighted that during Brazil’s presidency of the G20, from 1 December 2023, to 30 November 30 2024, he launched the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, of which Mozambique is a founding member.
“In May of this year, I invited the Ministers of Agriculture from Africa to visit Brazil and learn about our experience. Africa has fertile soil and a vibrant youth. With cooperation in food production and with the strengthening of family farming and scientific research, we will have the most promising future on the planet, but it will not be possible to fulfil any ideal of prosperity in a world where unilateralism and wars prevail”, he said.
Lula stressed that education is the best investment a government can make. “I know how much it costs a girl, a woman, to look for a job without a profession. I know how many abuses we suffer for not having had the opportunity to study. That is why education is an obsession for me; no one can be denied education because of where they were born, the religion they profess, or the financial origin of their family”, he said.
He added that Mozambique has gaps in its infrastructures that need to be overcome, and Brazilian companies can contribute in areas such as ports, roads, power stations and transmission lines.
Presidente Lula recebe o título de Doutor Honoris Causa em Moçambique https://t.co/9qpRyIv7ic
— Lula (@LulaOficial) November 24, 2025
Hoje, fui profundamente tocado pela declaração da jovem Laura Cruz, de Moçambique, que me homenageou com um belo poema de Mia Couto. Suas palavras de gratidão e esperança ecoam em meu coração, lembrando que a verdadeira riqueza está na união e na solidariedade ao redor do mundo.… pic.twitter.com/qBAtviofi6
— Lula (@LulaOficial) November 24, 2025
Source: AIM
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