President Lula is decorated in Angola
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was awarded the Dr. Antônio Agostinho Neto Order on Friday (Aug. 25). The award was given by Angolan President João Manuel Lourenço during a meeting in the country’s capital Luanda.
“It is a great honor for a man who has been in politics for 50 years to receive an award at the age of 77 that bears the name of Antônio Agostinho Neto,” said Lula, recalling that the political leader led the fight for Angola’s independence. “I will carry this medal with the conviction that whoever has a cause must not stop fighting,” the president stated.
In President Lula’s view, the accolade increases his responsibility in the efforts against inequality in the world. “With this honor and this medal on my chest, perhaps nourished by Augustinho Neto’s intelligence and revolutionary thinking, I hope I can succeed in convincing humanity to rise indignantly against inequality,” he said.
The Brazilian leader also awarded President João Manuel Lourenço with the National Order of the Southern Cross, Brazil’s highest decoration for foreign personalities.
“This recognition with which your excellency honors us also stems from your sensitivity and your ability to understand the yearnings of Africans for freedom, which are essentially the same as those for which enslaved Africans fought in the past in various lands of this world,” Lourenço declared.
Engagements
President Lula had two meetings with the president of Angola. The first was reserved and the second was expanded, attended by other representatives from both nations. The Brazilian and Angolan governments are also expected to sign cooperation deals on agriculture, data processing, support for small and medium-sized businesses, health care, and education.
Angola is the only country on the African continent apart from South Africa with which Brazil has a strategic partnership. The agreement was signed in 2010, during President Lula’s second term in office.
According to the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), the two countries have seven cooperation projects underway and their governments are discussing the implementation of another three, in the areas of health care and education. Furthermore, projects surrounding the environment, geoprocessing, geology, health care, energy, urbanization, and public security are also under study.
One of the most notable Brazilian initiatives in the country is the Regional Development Program for the Cunene Valley—a drought-stricken region in southern Angola. The plan, supported by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), aims to expand local agriculture through planting and irrigation techniques similar to those used in the São Francisco river valley, in northeastern Brazil.
Later today, Lula should visit and deliver an address to the Angolan National Assembly. At the end of the day, he will attend the closing ceremony of a seminar with entrepreneurs from both countries. The event will be attended by a delegation of some 60 representatives from Brazilian companies in the food, pharmaceuticals, aviation, and agricultural machinery sectors, among others.
The president arrived on the African continent last Monday (21). His first stop was South Africa for the 15th Summit of Brics Heads of State (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). Today and tomorrow (26), the Brazilian president should be in Angola. On Sunday (27), he is expected to be in São Tomé and Príncipe, to take part in the conference of heads of state of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP).
