"As well as acquiring equipment, weapons and military technique wherever the doors are opened for us and guaranteeing financing on favorable terms", said this Wednesday João Lourenço, at the opening of the meeting of the military leaders of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA).
According to the head of state, a first experience of acquiring military equipment is already taking place with the country's Navy, which is being equipped with naval vessels of "different categories".
"To better face the threats of piracy and international terrorism both in the territorial waters of our extensive coastline, as well as cooperating with other navies of war in the countries of the Gulf of Guinea", he noted.
João Lourenço, who was speaking as Commander-in-Chief of the FAA, at the opening of this meeting taking place in Menongue, Cuando Cubango province, said that the armed forces have always been decisive in maintaining national sovereignty and the country's territorial integrity.
"It was in this province of Cuando Cubango, in the historic Battle of Cuito Cuanavele, that our armed forces broke the myth of the invincibility of its army as defended by 'apartheid'", he stressed.
"The same Angolan armed forces that defended the country from external aggression were also the ones that successfully negotiated peace and national reconciliation, whose 22nd anniversary we celebrated a few days ago", he noted.
The current state of the FAA, which brings together the branches of the Army, Air Force and Navy, is under analysis at this meeting of Angolan military leaders.
The President, who is chairing the meeting, has been in that southern province since Tuesday, where he has watched the military maneuvers of the three branches of the FAA.
This Wednesday, at the start of the work, João Lourenço also considered that combat preparation and man training in military education establishments of all levels that the country has "must be a constant to maintain a very high degree of combat readiness of FAA units".
Teaching in schools and the military academy "must be ensured not only by contracted expatriates, but, above all, by general officers and Angolan officers, including retirees from different specialties who still feel capable of transmitting their rich experience", he stressed.
He also defended the need to pay particular attention to the development of defense industries aimed at the production and maintenance of weapons and various military techniques, ammunition, uniforms, boots and barracks equipment.
With the completion, within two months, of the expansion and modernization works of the Naval Base of Soyo, province of Zaire, the Government has "in perspective the construction of what will become the main naval base in the country", he said.
"Efforts should be directed towards the FAA developing large-scale agricultural and livestock production to guarantee the food self-sufficiency of its herd and have surpluses to inject into the consumer market", concluded the President.
João Lourenço also congratulated the Angolan military leaders for the military maneuvers carried out with live fire, this Tuesday, in Cuando Cubango.
The meeting of FAA military leaders takes place under the motto "In Peace, Strengthen the Armed Forces".
