Angola and Spain maintain an increasingly close relationship politically, diplomatically and economically, which the visit of the Spanish monarchs strengthens institutionally and which may lead to a subjugation to the role of Portugal.
The analysis by Eugenio Costa Almeida, a researcher at the ISCTE-IUL Center for International Studies (CEI-IUL), concerns the visit to Angola of Spain’s Kings Filipe VI and Letizia, which began on Monday, during their first trip to the country in sub-Saharan Africa.
“There have always been close relations between Spain and Angola,” the analyst said, recalling the stay of José Eduardo dos Santos, the president of Angola, who died last July, in Barcelona, where he spent the last years of his life. life.
José Eduardo dos Santos, who presided over the fate of Angola for almost 40 years, died at the age of 79 in Spain, where he moved in 2019, estranged from the Angolan regime and his successor, João Lourenço, who chose his children and closest associates as targets in the fight against corruption .
Madrid and Luanda have strengthened relations diplomatically in recent years with visits at the highest level: João Lourenço, elected president in 2017, visited Spain in the same year, while still Minister of National Defense, and repeated his visit to the country. already as chief executive in 2021, when he also hosted Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in Angola.
“This visit will also have the function of an institutional, diplomatic confirmation of the good relations that exist between the Kingdom of Spain and the Republic of Angola,” the researcher emphasized.
But at the economic and political level, the rapprochement is obvious.
He is a Spaniard who currently leads the Angolan flagship company TAAG. It was the Spanish company that was chosen to provide electoral logistics for last year’s elections (despite opposition from the opposition), and it was in Spain that José Eduardo’s body was located. disputed dos Santos.
The death of the former president on the eve of the 2022 elections led to a large-scale diplomatic offensive by Angola, following a legal battle brought by the former president’s prominent older daughters, Isabel and Chise dos Santos, who resorted to the courts to try to stop the transfer of the body to Angola as intended by the widow and mother three younger children by Anna Paula dos Santos with the support of the government of João Lourenço.
The dispute did not last long, and Luanda won the fray by receiving on August 20, four days before the election, the urn containing the body, which was to be buried on August 28 at a state funeral, to the satisfaction of the Angolan regime, but with little participation from the population in the funeral ceremonies.
“All this matters. Kind and cordial deeds deserve gratitude,” commented the international relations specialist.
“We are not so naïve as to think that there was no diplomatic pressure to draw attention to the convenience of good relations with Luanda,” added Eugenio Costa Almeida, pointing out how the matter was delayed and made uncomfortable for both Madrid and Luanda and its quick resolution.
In some aspects, the analyst even believes that institutional relations between Luanda and Madrid are better than between Luanda and Lisbon, emphasizing that Madrid is closer to the center of Europe than Lisbon.
While Portugal maintains “closer” relations with Angola, where there are “ups and downs, disputes, quarrels”, other relations are more institutional, focused on economic and party-political interests, he said, given that João Lourenço tends to approach more and more from the western bloc.
“Madrid is much closer to the Paris-Berlin axis that governs the European Union than Lisbon, and there you can understand the position of the Angolan government. Costa, who must know what he must do. defend,” he said.
According to the program that Lusa had access to, the arrival of the Spanish monarchs is scheduled for Monday, but the official visit does not begin until Tuesday with a trip to the Republic Square, where the António Agostinho Neto Memorial and the tomb of former President José Eduardo dos Santos are located – before meeting Joao Lourenço.
The award ceremony and the signing of agreements will take place at the Presidential Palace, followed by a visit to the Banco Económico building in the afternoon, where an exhibition of the Catalan artist Joan Miró will open, and a meeting with the Spanish community.
On Wednesday, a business forum will be held, which will bring together businessmen from both countries.
On the same day, the kings of Spain also visit the National Assembly and the Military History Museum, and return to the country in the afternoon.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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