"What a great honor not only Angola but the entire continent in general and the Portuguese-speaking countries, so we take the opportunity to request the institutional support of the Cape Verde parliament and the presence in our capital of a representative delegation of the size of your Assembly Nacional", said Carolina Cerqueira, in the solemn welcome session, in the Cape Verdean parliament.
Angola will be the first African country to host a general assembly of the IPU, with around 1500 deputies from all over the world gathered in the capital from 23 to 27 October.
According to Carolina Cerqueira, Angola chose for the theme of this 147th general assembly of the UIP – a global institution that brings together deputies from 178 countries, currently led by the Portuguese Duarte Pacheco –, a "parliamentary action for peace, justice and strong institutions".
In her speech, the parliamentarian also invited her Cape Verdean counterpart, Austelino Correia, to visit Angola in the next legislative year, 2023/2024, for a deepening of relations between the two parliaments.
She added that the invitation is also to "repay the frank hospitality that was offered" to the Angolan delegation, also made up of deputies from three parties, who were in Praia in the last three days, considering that the friendship between the two countries has the "dimension of Atlantic".
"We returned home convinced that funge na cachupa, as our artists sing, is the most sublime expression of the communion of our common ideals, of the highest feelings of fraternity, friendship, cultural solidarity and cooperation that must prevail between the Angolan people and Cape Verdean people", she concluded.
As part of this visit, the presidents of the parliaments of Cape Verde and Angola signed in Praia, on Monday, a new cooperation protocol, adapting the previous instrument to the new reality.
The president of the National Assembly of Angola said at the National Assembly of Cape Verde that the signing of this cooperation protocol, which updates the previous one, initialed nine years ago, between the two parliaments, was the "highlight" of this first official visit to the country. She also assumed that she was convinced that the updating of this protocol would make it possible to materialize new areas of action and "greater dynamism" in parliamentary relations between Angola and Cape Verde.
"We have defined as priorities areas of obvious importance for both countries and peoples, which are climate change, the blue and circular economy, security, not only from the cooperative point of view between our countries", she added.
