Almeida Henriques commented, in statements to the Lusa agency, on the visit to Angola by the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, in which an intervention is scheduled for Wednesday on the new angles of the American Government's policy towards Africa, with the theme "The Power of Partnership".
According to the analyst, the FAA is in a process of resizing, restructuring, and needs "new winds to give a different image", both from an intellectual point of view, from the Angolan military, and from a technological point of view.
"And today it is normal to resort to or establish a relationship with the USA, because it is one of the world's nations that, from the point of view of military strategy and also the evolution of military technology, is worth counting on", he said.
For Almeida Henriques, "Angola cannot be conceited, thinking that it must exclude political actor A to the detriment of political actor B", considering all of them valid, depending on the country's needs.
At this point, continued the expert, the President, João Lourenço, who "reads the signs of the times", knows that, "like any other State in the world, it is the target of any negative intention from its neighbor or another State in the world".
"To this end, it needs to have armed forces capable of responding proportionately, depending on the context and circumstances, to any possible eventuality", he said, adding that the technical-military conditions that the US offers meet Angolan needs, which are "the revitalization, restructuring and modernization of the FAA."
According to Almeida Henriques, there is no partner of the Angolan State, such as the traditional Russia and China, that is "declined or disregarded the relations that exist with Angola".
"But Angola needs to find a common denominator to maintain armed forces capable of facing any eventuality both within its borders, in the regional or African space and why not worldwide", he stressed.
"For this to happen, we need to have armed forces properly equipped with all possible tools, so that they can face the challenges of the context the world is experiencing", he added.
Almeida Henriques reinforced that Angola needs to build its ideology based on its interests, and all partners are valid as long as they recognize that the Portuguese-speaking country is a sovereign state and that it needs to define its security policies.
"In Angola's foreign policy there is no possible choice other than the one that suits national interests, because there is no permanent friendly state and no eternal enemy. Our national interests are eternal, but the others may vary depending on the circumstances", he highlighted, disagreeing with those who think that the Angolan head of state "is changing the paradigms of national political history".
The analyst highlighted that any State that has diplomatic relations with Angola, even if at a strategic level, "cannot think that it is declined due to the fact that Angola is opening up new spaces in its foreign policy, from the perspective of strategic partnerships".
"The President of the Republic, João Lourenço, is governing at a time when he needs to read the signs of the times. If he must read the signs of the times, then the partnerships that must be fundamental at this time are those that meet of the needs of the Angolan people", he highlighted.
