Zim, Angola maintain ties

THE Angolan government has pledged to maintain cordial relations that are based on mutual respect and non-interference in internal relations with Zimbabwe.

Speaking during a Defence Attachee’s Intervention at the 26th anniversary of the Angolan Armed Forces in Harare yesterday, the First Secretary of the Embassy of Angola, Colonel Edwardo Kwendwa, who was representing Angolan Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Pedro Hendrik Vaal Neto, said relations between the two countries were crucially linked by high-ranking reciprocal visits by armed forces of either country for military cooperation.

“The Angolan Armed Forces maintain privileged relationships with the countries that Your Excellencies represent, and we continue to strive for the maintenance of existing relationships of friendship and cooperation based on mutual respect and non-interference in internal affairs,” he said.

“We highlight the excellent relations of friendship and cooperation between the Angolan Armed Forces and Zimbabwe Defence Forces, which are linked to the high-ranking reciprocal visits of both Armed Forces in the scope of implementing the Technical-Military Cooperation Protocol between the two countries and the SADC Mutual Defence Pact.”

The Angolan Armed Forces were formed on October 9, 1991 after former President Eduardo dos Santos, who recently stepped down, had signed a Peace Agreement with former UNITA rebel leader Jonas Malheiro Savimbi.

The peace agreement between the two parties was signed on May 31, 1991 in Bicesse, Portugal under the mediation of the host country, the United States and Russia.