"But how could I come to São Vicente if I didn't have the keys to the city, how did I get into the city? So, from now on, once I have the keys to Mindelo in my pocket , to be able to come to São Vicente many more times, even without prior notice. When they realize I'm already in Mindelo", joked the head of state, after symbolically receiving the keys to the municipality from the mayor of São Vicente, Augusto Neves.
"The list of Cape Verdean friends I have, some of them are from here in São Vicente and have never forgiven the fact that I have always forgotten about São Vicente on my trips to Cape Verde. Therefore, this opportunity that President José Maria Neves gave me granted is for this purpose, for the purpose of coming to pay the debt and make peace with the São Vicente", said João Lourenço.
On the third day in Cape Verde, the head of state left Praia in the morning for the island of São Vicente, considered the cultural capital of the archipelago, from where he will return to Angola on Wednesday, at the end of the state visit, always marked by strict protocol rules and security measures.
"To thank President José Maria Neves for the opportunity he gave me to come to São Vicente for the first time in my life. It is an opportunity that gives me to pay a debt. A debt because over the years, as a politician and friend of Cabo Verde, I made many working visits to Cape Verde, going to other islands, to other cities, but never to São Vicente", he also acknowledged, accompanied by his Cape Verdean counterpart, in the same session, in the Chamber of São Vicente, an island that said have the "most open windows to the world".
At the ceremony held this morning, the mayor of São Vicente, Augusto Neves, considered the visit as the meeting of two "brother countries" with a common history, which they should try to make the best of.
"This State visit is an expression of the excellent relations of brothers, of solidarity between the two countries, which despite the changes that have taken place around the world, the history that unites us remains deeply healthy and that has served to relaunch cooperation multiform and mutually advantageous. The relations between Cape Verde and Angola transcend what brings us together here today and involve a whole set of sociocultural and economic aspects", said the mayor.
The mayor of the second main island in the country, in the north of the archipelago, defended the importance of strengthening ties through cooperation and challenged João Lourenço to boost investments in São Vicente.
"We count on Angola and your people in the mobilization and Angolan investors to continue to flow with greater impetus to our São Vicente. It is urgent that we know how to take advantage of this opening to move towards the relationship that explores in a more fruitful way the cooperative advantages of both ", said Augusto Neves.
This afternoon, the President also participates in a solemn ceremony at the Palácio do Povo, in the city of Mindelo, and in a restricted dinner scheduled for the 'replica' of the Torre de Belém, on the same island.
