Angolan president's visit to Russia creates high expectations

An Angolan delegation led by President Joao Lourenco has arrived in Moscow for a four-day visit. The Russian publication Kommersant wrote that “although this is the Angolan leader’s first visit to Russia in this capacity, he does have first-hand knowledge about the Russian capital, since he studied at the Military-Political Academy here in 1978-1982. While attending the Russia-Angola business forum on Wednesday, Lourenco assured Kommersant that the two countries were close spiritually in many areas, not only in international politics. He informed the paper that representatives of both countries’ specialized agencies would sign six cooperation agreements in various areas in the presence of both presidents on Thursday.”

Angola is a priority area of Russia’s cooperation in Africa, Kommersant quoted Sergei Nenashev, a senior research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for African Studies. "To begin with, that was the case since the time when Angola fought for its independence. Secondly, this is due to Angola’s huge economic potential," explained Nenashev who served as Russia’s Ambassador to Angola in 2007-2012.

"Now the country lives off oil, gas and, partially, diamonds. On the other hand, Angola has vast resources. It used to produce up to 200,000 tonnes of coffee per year at some point. Today, Russia and Angola maintain ties in all areas of interstate relations, including culture, education, personnel training, military-technical, financial and economic cooperation," the expert stressed.