Hot on the heels of news that Angola was threatening “a series of retaliatory measures” against Portugal over a case involving catastrophic losses at a diamond mine (https://www.portugalresident.com/portugal-slapped-with-%E2%82%AC53-billion-lawsuit-over-angola-diamond-mine) deputy PM Paulo Portas has made a lightning business trip to Angola to declare that the two countries share an “unsubstitutable” relationship.
Talking to journalists as he arrived at Luanda airport this morning, he said: “As you know, Portugal and Angola have a relationship that is unsubstitutable and we always overcome questions that exist between the two countries to reach an even more positive relational plateau.”
Taking advantage of the “Portugal Day” at Luanda’s FILDA business fair, Portas was due to meet Portuguese exhibitors before going on to a meeting with the country’s vice president Manuel Vicente.
Billing the trip as a “lightning visit”, TVI24 explained that Angola was an important export market for Portugal which had been badly hammered by the economic crisis. Since January this year, Portugal’s sizeable exports to the country have slumped 20% as Angola struggles with the consequences of the drop in the price of crude.
Due to turn round after his afternoon meeting and head back to Portugal, Portas said: “Everyone knows that this year has not been easy from the point of view of the contraction of international indicators which affect economies like Angola. But we have absolute confidence that with the measures that are now being taken, this is a transitory situation.”
Curiously, he did not expound on the “measures that are now being taken”.
