Mozambique expects agreements with Portugal to convert debt into green economy projects

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique expects agreements with Portugal to convert debt into green economy projects

4:08 CAT | 02 Jul 2025

Illustrative image: iStock

After Seville, President Chapo will travel to Lisbon for an official visit to Portugal, where he will meet with the heads of state and government Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Luís Montenegro.

The President of Mozambique says that Portugal is open to agreements to convert Mozambican sovereign debt into green economy projects and that this will be one of the topics to be addressed during his visit to Lisbon this week.

“There is openness. There is openness on the part of Portugal and other European Union countries and we believe that this is extremely important, in order to alleviate, on the one hand, the pressure we have on the state budget due to the cost of sovereign debt, but also, on the other hand, to give some leeway to our budget that can allow us to make more investments and develop Mozambique,” President Chapo said.

The Mozambican president was speaking to the Lusa news agency in Seville, where he is participating in the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development of the United Nations.

At this conference, which began on Monday and ends on Thursday, Mozambique has sought agreements to convert debt into green projects and, according to Daniel Chapo, “there are prospects” of agreements.

“There are encouraging discussions. There is still no concrete response or a concrete project, but the most important thing is that the world understood the message at this conference,” he said.

After Seville, President Chapo will travel to Lisbon for an official visit to Portugal, where he will meet heads of the Portuguese state and government, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Luís Montenegro.

“Our idea is to continue these discussions” regarding green projects, within the scope of public debt conversion agreements and the so-called “carbon credit”, which aims to reduce global pollutant emissions, he revealed.

READ: Mozambique: Negotiations on debt-for-climate swaps are underway

Daniel Chapo stressed that Portugal “is a sister country” with strong ties of friendship, history, culture and cooperation with Mozambique, which were recently evident in the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Mozambican independence, on June 25, which Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa attended.

“It is a very strong sign of brotherhood and excellent cooperation between Mozambique and Portugal. And we want to consolidate this new perspective, of climate funds for the green economy and also for the exchange, as far as possible, of sovereign debt or these issues related to carbon credits,” the president said.

In addition to this issue, and in a more general way, Daniel Chapo intends with the visit that begins on Thursday in Portugal to strengthen the already “increasingly strong” relations between the two countries.

Portugal and Mozambique, he stated, have “a common history” and, even “during the colonial process”, the two peoples shared an enemy, which was the “fascist and dictatorial regime” of Portugal that fell in 1974.

“We have always been brotherly peoples,” stressed Daniel Chapo. “We want to increasingly strengthen the relations of friendship and cooperation and reinforce our economic relations, our social relations, our political relations, so that we can develop Portugal, develop Mozambique, develop our politics and create better living conditions for our peoples,” he said.

Source: Lusa