PM Costa cancels state visit to Mozambique as wildfires rage through Portugal

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PM Costa cancels state visit to Mozambique as wildfires rage through Portugal

8:36 CAT | 11 Jul 2022

Imgae: SIC Notícias

Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, has cancelled his visit to Mozambique planned for Monday and Tuesday, due to “weather forecasts that indicate a very serious worsening of the risk of rural fire in the coming days.”

“Given the weather forecasts that indicate a very serious worsening of the risk of rural fires in the coming days, especially between Sunday and Wednesday, the prime minister has cancelled the official visit to Mozambique, scheduled for 11 and 12 July, to be permanently available in the country,” reads a statement released on Sun day by António Costa’s office.

According to the statement, António Costa “contacted the president [of Mozambique] Filipe Nyusi by telephone explaining this situation personally.”

“The ministers of foreign affairs of the two countries will schedule a new date as soon as possible,” it is further stated.

READ: Portugal battles wildfires amid drought, heat; 29 injured

Costa was due to leave on Sunday for Maputo, where on Monday, he would take part in the 5th Luso-Moçambican Summit, which should consolidate and develop the strategic cooperation programme by signing a wide range of bilateral agreements.

According to the provisional programme for the visit, Costa would have a meeting alone with Filipe Nyusi shortly after arriving in Maputo, followed by an extended meeting between the delegations of the two governments, the signing ceremony of the agreements in question and a press conference.

As part of the 5th Luso-Moçambican Summit, it was expected that several bilateral cooperation instruments would be signed in agriculture, education, tourism and at the technical-police level during this trip.

Memoranda would also be signed to improve capacity building in public administration, including closer collaboration between the General Inspectorates of Finance of Mozambique and Portugal, but also the implementation of cooperation instruments in the area of health, particularly in telemedicine, with a protocol between Maputo Hospital and Coimbra University Hospitals.

On Monday, the prime minister was also expected to visit the Monument to Mozambican Heroes to lay a wreath. In the afternoon, he was due to visit the parliament and the Portuguese Cultural Centre.

António Costa’s first day in Mozambique would end with a dinner offered by the president.

On Tuesday, among the most critical moments of António Costa’s official programme were his participation in the Business and Investment Forum between Portugal and Mozambique, a visit to the Portuguese troops and the European Union mission, and, in the middle of the afternoon, a meeting with the Portuguese community in this country.

On this trip, Costa was expected to be accompanied by the ministers of foreign affairs, João Gomes Cravinho, defence, Helena Carreiras, and agriculture, Maria do Céu Antunes.

Portugal’s minister of internal administration announced yesterday that the government decided to declare a contingency situation between Monday and Friday, allowing Civil Protection to mobilise “all the means the country has” to fight the fires.

“The ministers of Internal Administration, National Defence, Environment and Climate Change, Agriculture and Food and Health decided to move forward with the declaration of a contingency situation, which will be in force between 11 and 15 July […]. This means that we have conditions of a preventive nature to be able to automatically and preventively activate all emergency plans and civil protection at all territorial levels,” said Carneiro.

According to the minister, who was speaking at a press conference at the headquarters of the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC), in Carnaxide, in the municipality of Oeiras (Lisbon), after meeting with other ministers, for now, the alert situation decreed by the government on Thursday remains in place since forecasts indicate that the worst days will be Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Source: Lusa