Speaking at a joint press conference with his Senegalese counterpart, Macky Sall, who started his official visit to Angola this Wednesday, João Lourenço valued the cooperation agreements signed, with emphasis on the oil and gas sector.
"Among the (agreements) signed today, I would like to highlight the agreement that has to do with the oil and gas sector, since Senegal is preparing to start exploring oil soon", he said, at the end of official talks.
In view of this, "Angola makes available all its long experience in this matter of exploration in favor of Senegal, Senegal can count on Angola in the exchange of experiences", he pointed out.
The official recalled that, in addition to the state-owned Sonangol, the country has a Petroleum Institute and a National Oil and Gas Agency (ANPG), the current concessionaire.
"And, therefore, all of them are at Senegal's disposal to help the country enter this world of oil and succeed in favor of the Senegalese economy", he stressed.
In his speech, before the questions posed by journalists, João Lourenço said he had accepted Macky Sall's invitation to visit Senegal, the country that currently presides over the African Union.
According to the President, Senegal is a "very important country in the African context, an influential country, with a rich history, with a very deep culture and a science that is not to be despised".
It is a country with "an economy and political situation that is also stable in the set of other West African countries where, we know, in some of them instability reigns, Senegal has been able to maintain political stability and from there we conclude that it is a country in that we should bet," he said, without specifying the Sahel's neighbours, the Gambia or Guinea-Bissau.
João Lourenço also highlighted the relaunch of bilateral cooperation with Senegal, "after a long interregnum", considering Macky Sall's visit as an "opportune occasion" to work "in a joint way to achieve solid and dynamic cooperation".
"A fact [Macky Sal's visit] that demonstrates the importance that our governments attach to the need and urgency of resuming and normalizing contacts between Angola and Senegal after a long interregnum", said João Lourenço.
The President referred that the presence of Macky Sall constitutes "a turning point that the relations of cooperation and exchange between our nations needed".
"We believe this is an opportunity not to be missed to address issues of mutual interest at the highest level that contribute to the intensification of our bilateral relations", said João Lourenço.
The head of state also considered that the "long gap" in the relationship between the two countries "did not prevent or condition that the diplomatic legal framework on which all "cooperation and exchanges" began to be drawn up in January 2022 with the signing of the General Agreement on Technical, Scientific and Economic Cooperation".
It should be noted that Macky Sall, who arrived in Luanda on Tuesday evening, this Wednesday completed his first day of a 72-hour state visit to Angola.
After visiting the António Agostinho Neto Memorial, where he paid tribute to the first Angolan President, the Senegalese statesman met in private with João Lourenço, at the presidential palace and then both attended the meeting of the joint ministerial delegations.
Agreements in the fields of justice, trade and industry, oil and gas and investment promotion and protection were signed between both delegations.
According to João Lourenço, the General Agreement on Technical, Scientific and Economic Cooperation, signed last January, "was an important window for other instruments to be signed at the same time, such as agreements on the suppression of visas in diplomatic and service passports".
"This legal framework must be seen as the starting point of a series of other initiatives that we can take on in important sectors of the national life of our two countries", he stressed.
This is the first visit by a Senegalese head of state to Angola in the context of relations between both countries.
