Mozambique: Santos Silva expects EU cooperation framework agreed ‘in weeks’

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Mozambique: Santos Silva expects EU cooperation framework agreed ‘in weeks’

4:45 CAT | 25 Jan 2021

Photo: Lusa

Portugal’s foreign minister, Augusto Santos Silva, said on Monday in Brussels that he hoped that “in the coming weeks” a “framework of enhanced cooperation” would be achieved between the European Union and Mozambique to tackle the “dire situation” in Cabo Delgado province.

Speaking in Brussels, where he is taking part in a meeting of EU heads of diplomacy, Santos Silva pointed out that in the morning’s working session he had had the opportunity to report to his counterparts on the “political mission” he carried out last week to Maputo, “to express European solidarity with the dire situation Mozambique is facing in its fight against terrorism and insurgency in Cabo Delgado province.

Recalling that he carried out this mission “as a representative of the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy of the EU”, Josep Borrell, the Portuguese minister, reiterated that “the objectives of this political mission have all been fulfilled”.

“In the first place, I was able to be received by the president of Mozambique [Filipe Nyusi], I was able to meet with the ministers of foreign affairs, defence, interior and agriculture, and I was able to gather the evident priorities of the Mozambican authorities, who want greater cooperation from Europe in the area of humanitarian action, in the area of support to development and the area of security,” he said.

In the latter area, Mozambique wants above all “support for training and education of special military forces, as well as the provision of equipment and logistical capacity,” Santos Silva said.

“At the same time, the technical teams on both sides have started to work, and I expect that we can arrive at a framework of enhanced cooperation with Mozambique, during the next few weeks,” he said.

According to the head of Portuguese diplomacy, the aim is to establish “a framework to support the north of Mozambique in its fight against terrorism and insurgency, in cooperation and coordination with the regional authorities, the countries of the region and its multilateral organisation, SADC [Southern African Development Community], and in the spirit of European cooperation: respect for human rights, support for the people, and humanitarian action when it is needed and action that is indispensable to strengthen security and stability in this region”.

The armed insurgency in Cabo Delgado province, which led Josep Borrell to ask the Portuguese minister to go 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 today in Brussels, in person, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

The armed violence in Mozambique’s northern province, where the largest private multinational investment in Africa is being made to exploit 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 Council of the EU, but by Josep Borrell.

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

Source: Lusa