Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias’ statement to Greek journalists following his meeting with the President of Angola, João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço (Luanda, 11.01.2022)

I had the pleasure and honour today to be received by the President of Angola, President Lourenço, in the course of this first visit of a Greek Minister, a Greek Foreign Minister, to Angola.
First of all, I had the great pleasure of thanking him for what was made known to me by the Angolan side today, namely that the country will vote for us, that is will support us in our efforts to be elected to the United Nations Security Council. I would like to say that Angola’s vote is extremely important, because it is a large African country, which in turn influences the vote of a number of other countries.

Furthermore, we had the opportunity to discuss with the President issues of maritime safety, issues related to UNCLOS, the Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Angola has ratified, in fact five years before Greece. A broad scope for cooperation, between us and Angola, is opening in this area.

We also discussed a number of other issues related to regional security and economic cooperation; a number of Agreements that we are preparing and which, following the first Agreement we signed today, can create the framework for broader cooperation with Angola.

Concluding, I extended to him the invitation by the President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, to visit Athens, as well as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ warm greetings.