{"id":12730,"date":"2019-03-07T14:44:48","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T06:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=12730"},"modified":"2019-03-07T14:57:30","modified_gmt":"2019-03-07T06:57:30","slug":"diplomatic-progress-as-angola-hosts-portugal-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=12730","title":{"rendered":"Diplomatic progress as Angola hosts Portugal president"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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LUANDA, March 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is in the Angolan capital of Luanda where, together with his counterpart Joao Lourenco, they will continue to restore relations that have previously been strained by anti-corruption issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visit follows Angolan leader Joao Lourenco\u2019s landmark November visit to Lisbon in which he sought to set aside tensions created by Portugal\u2019s investigation of graft under his predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis state visit clearly marks a new chapter in the already strong relations between our two countries,\u201d said Lourenco, who added both sides were working towards \u201cdeveloping exemplary relations\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Sousa said there was a \u201cpolitical will to overcome the problems of the past\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe current level of political and economic relations between Portugal and Angola is excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the November trip Lourenco compared the fight against corruption in his country to \u201ctouching a wasps nest\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angola, a Portuguese-speaking oil-rich country, is one of Africa\u2019s poorest countries and nearly half of the population lives below the poverty line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The corruption trail that strained Angola-Portugal relations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The diplomacy marks an effort to move beyond the legacy of colonial rule over Angola that ended in 1975 when Portugal withdrew without handing over power and Angola sank into civil war until 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angola also entered a new era in 2017 when Dos Santos, who ruled with an iron fist from 1979, stepped down and was replaced by Lourenco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key source of friction between Luanda and Lisbon was removed in May when a Portuguese court decided that Angola\u2019s former vice president Manuel Vicente can face a corruption trial in Angola instead of Portugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lourenco had demanded that the trial take place in his country, \u201cso that relations between Angola and Portugal can return to the level of the recent past\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chatham House analyst Alex Vines said the visit \u201cis a further step in the normalisation of bilateral relations\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA year ago the relationship was fractious \u2014 mostly due to a Portuguese judicial investigation into allegations of corruption surrounding the former vice president Manuel Vicente,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen Portugal handed over the investigative process to come under Angolan law, a remarkable thawing resulted in President Joao Lourenco visiting Portugal officially in late 2018 and now this further step in rapprochement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lourenco has pledged to fight corruption and rebuild the economy of the second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, which has still not recovered from the 2014 plunge in oil prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LUANDA, March 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is in the Angolan capital of Luanda where, together with his counterpart Joao Lourenco, they will continue to restore relations that have previously been strained by anti-corruption issues. The visit follows Angolan leader Joao Lourenco\u2019s landmark November visit to Lisbon in which he sought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":12738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213,291],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12730"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}