 Good afternoon and welcome, everybody. My name's Jennifer Cook. I direct the Africa program here at CSIS. And we're really just delighted to have with us this afternoon the Foreign Minister of Angola, Dr. Assunciao Afonso Susa dos Santos. Andrew, sorry. My Portuguese pronunciation is not too good, but the minister has been in his post since October of 2008. He is a diplomat par excellence, having served as the ambassador of Angola in Portugal from 2003 to 2008, in France from 2000 to 2003, and Spain from 1993 to 2000, winning accolades and awards of all kinds in each of… 1993. 1993. 1993 to 2000, yeah, in Spain. And winning all kinds of awards in each of those places. He studied at Coimbra University School of Law and at the Classic University School of Law in Portugal, ending in 1973. He's had a long career besides the ambassadorships in the foreign ministry. He was director of the Office of the President, director of the Office of the Minister of Planning, director of Africa and the Middle East in the Ministry of External Affairs, and director of the first vice prime minister back in the 1970s. So he has a long and expansive career in this area. As I think most of you know, he's been here in Washington to sign the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with the United States, something very promising opportunity to expand the relationship in the commercial and trade sector to a range of new sectors beyond energy and oil. Within that new TIFA agreement will be established a U.S. Angolan Council on Trade and Investment that's going to look at some of the issues on facilitating trade in terms of trade capacity building, intellectual property, labor issues, environmental issues, and regulations. So this is really, I think, a moment of big opportunity. The perception here in Washington is that Angola is really a place of dynamism and opportunity. And I think the business sector is becoming increasingly aware of the opportunities that lie in Angola. But I also think this is an important opportunity to expand and deepen the relationship in other areas as well. And we're very glad you're here. I think the need for kind of senior level, regular engagement here in Washington to get across to a Washington and U.S. audience kind of the broad range of challenges and opportunities in Angola is extremely important. There are opportunities in security, greater interest in the potential in Angola for big role in continental peacekeeping initiatives, in maritime security that affect the Gulf of Guinea. Angola is home to the Gulf of Guinea Commission that is one component of a broader regional maritime security approach. On regional security and conflict mediation, I think the hope is as Angola emerges from its own conflict, it can play a greater continental leadership role on some of these other issues. Other areas are health. We've hosted your health minister here a number of times, Jose Van Dunham, who spoke very eloquently about the challenges in Angola. In malaria, in neglected tropical diseases, in surveillance of new and emerging infections and of strengthening the health sector more generally. Obviously, there remains the reform agenda and transparency issues of deepening and consolidating democratic participation in Angola. And finally, I hope too that the U.S.-Angolan relationship can expand beyond the business sector to include much more people-to-people civil society engagement, engagement with media and so forth. The hope is this is a big emerging, I think, leader on the African continent and I think it's important to have a broad and consistent dialogue on the many issues that affect us both. We're delighted to have you here. As I said, we hope this is the first of many visits to come and I leave the floor to you. The minister will be talking about the new Angola and Angola's regional role. So, Mr. Minister, welcome. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. The topic, the fundamental topic of this speech for which I have been invited is precisely the new Angola and its regional integration. Before all, however, the truth is that I am here in Washington and, above all, I would like to make a brief reference to the objective of our presence here and the motive of our visit to the United States. I'd like to start by sincerely thanking Ms. Jennifer Cook, director of the Africa program and the Center for Strategic and International Studies for their invitation to participate in this prestigious forum. It is sincerely a personal honor for me and an honor for Angola. Ladies and gentlemen, your Excellencies, this event is taking place on the last day of my visit to the United States. It is a time that facilitates the formation of balance. We can very quickly tell you how we did in the United States. We came here inspired by solidarity and friendship. We came here to strengthen, widen and deepen in a global and multisectoral level the friendship between the United States and Angola. I would say better, between the United States and the new Angola, fortunately there is a new reality in Angola. Angola is now a country that emerges, that is filled with democratic projects that respects human rights, that is devoted to its economic reconstruction. It is a country that grows economically. It is a country that has planned its economic development and although Angola wants to fundamentally guarantee a good level of life to its population, it is however a country that has a deep solidarity spirit and searches to take to its neighbors and to expand to other countries in the region, in the southern region of Africa, in the central region of Africa, its stability experience, its experience of extinguishing internal conflicts. Angola has been progressively called to participate in the process of elimination of conflicts in the African continent. And Angola has been carrying out this task with a deep engagement and in some cases naturally together with other countries that are part of the SADEC, could it be our Regional Integration Association or the CEAC or even countries that are part of the Commission of the Gulf of Guinea, which is another very important structure of countries that aim to grant peace and security and stability of a very important in the Atlantic Ocean? Angola has been very committed and in some cases, like the most recent cases, Angola has used its regional missions to great success. So we come to the U.S. with this message of goodwill, this message of interest in widening and deepening our bilateral relations. And following a purpose that our two presidents have referred to, our presidents have exchanged messages that have been engaged in dialogue in which they have reaffirmed the firm interest in deepening the relations and widening commercial exchanges and to diversify our trade. There are also consultation mechanisms operating regularly so that the two countries interact in the solution of problems, not only in countries, but also at the global level. We are here with an important objective and we bring responsibles of several sectors that have been cooperating with the United States already. The military sector. We have been cooperating widely with the United States in the military sector. We have been conceiving a post-war army, taking advantage of the vast experience of the United States and also its capacity. We have a responsible from the trade sector to this purpose, we have signed the investment agreement between the United States and the U.S., which will allow a widening of our trade relations and prevent them from being limited to oil. There is no doubt that Saint-Saint-Gola is an important oil producer in Sub-Saharan Africa and I must say that all of you know that a great deal of our partners in this domain in the exploration and production of oil are great American oil companies. Also it is important to underscore that great part of our oil comes from the United States of America. The consumption index of Angolan oil is between 7 and 11 percent, so Angola is an important partner at this moment. However, our oil relations are more in the private sector and we would like to strengthen our institutional relations. We would like to see a wider involvement of our civil society. And this is what I discussed about an hour ago in a very deep meeting with her Excellency State Secretary, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, where we discussed the improvement of our bilateral relations. The meeting was extremely productive and we defined the basis for going towards the increase of our cooperation. We all want to see the United States as a strategic partner in this important stage of our bilateral cooperation. At this stage where Angola is reconstructing its infrastructure, yesterday I met an important group of American entrepreneurs whom we invited and gave indications of how they can strengthen direct investment in our country. Besides the issues I have made a reference to, such as the military sector and the transportation sector, whose officials we met this morning, we are a consumer who have been a consumer for a very long time of transportation products that are made in the United States, such as trucks. We were one of the first countries to purchase the Boeing 777 and we're going to have more cooperation in order to regulate airline cooperation and other specific issues. We also have another sector that is already cooperating with Angola through programs to eradicate malaria, to eradicate HIV AIDS, and in other sectors in order to improve the well-being of our population. We have the entrepreneurial sector represented by the president of the national investment, national direct investment program, who is also here. We have a whole set of sectors that already have conditions to improve and widen our cooperation with the United States. But this is just to give you a general idea of what we're doing here. The relations between Angola and the United States are already good. So we want to increase their intensity and widen their scope. They have been established 16 years ago and we have had the pleasure of commemorating 16 years of our bilateral relations on the 19th of this month. And we recalled the 19th of May of 1993 when President Bill Clinton announced the beginning of the diplomatic relations between Angola and the United States. From that date, naturally, the relations have developed and now we are going to enliven them and develop them. This of course requires more constant visits of country authorities, and we have also discussed that issue with the State Secretary. It is necessary to have reciprocity when our agendas allow us to do so. There must be visits from Mr. Obama to Angola and from our President of the United States so that we give more consistency to our relations. And this was just a brief summary of what we're here doing and an idea of how consistent is the future of our relations. But going specifically into the theme I'm going to talk about, I must say that, and I'm going to give you a brief history because you will all recall the circumstances in which Angola gained independence in November 11, 1975. I believe, however, that at that time there wasn't what we all wanted. We didn't see what all Angolans wanted. We wanted the date of our independence to be marked by the restoration of our sovereignty and we wanted that to coincide with the advent of peace and stability. We assumed our sovereignty, but unfortunately we could not gain peace because of invasions from external factors that destabilized our country enormously and fed a war that prolonged itself for 27 years. There were also endogenous reasons. There were also internal reasons that led to a civil conflict that led 27 years. The war ended on April 4, 2002 and only then did we gain stability and sovereignty and gain a better perspective to develop our projects and programs for the development of the country and for our affirmation as an important player in Africa and in the globe. Following the achievement of peace, the main priority of our government was the whole delections. Our first objective in a peaceful and stable Angola was to regularize our electoral calendar, which had been suspended during the long years of war and 27 years of war made Angola a country with disrupted structures. The country was basically in islands because roads were destroyed, communications were disrupted. We had about 5 million internally displaced persons. The great majority of home resettled in the capital, running away obviously from war. So our main concern was to make the preparation for elections a true act that reaffirms our democracy. We are inherently democratic. Angolans believe in representative democracy. So we created the conditions for the electoral act to be something in which all Angolans could exert in liberty and in due conscience their sovereign right to vote. It was necessary to foster the democratic impulse and to increase democratic conscience so that Angolans could freely choose their representatives. That's what happened on September the 5th, 2008. On that day we held the elections and we were proud to give that example of participation and civism. When we conquered peace, to summarize one of the presidents of the U.S., John Fitzgerald Kennedy who said, peace is not the mere absence of war and we had that perception as soon as we conquered peace that it was necessary to give substance and consistency to peace. It was necessary that peace were followed by social change and dialogue that included everyone and it was necessary to stop taking guns to fight one another. In the end of war generated another type of mentality. Angolans began to hate war and started to solve their problems in democratic institutions such as the parliament where you discuss and resolve your issues. This democratic stability has been serving as a good example for us to take to other regions, both to other regions in Africa and to countries in conflict. It has been good to take our conflict solving experience and to solve our problems through dialogue among Angolans. And this experience and this will and this desire to establish political stability and social stability through dialogue, through the respect of differences, through the respect for different opinions and based on social cohesion and use that as a basis for macroeconomic stability to create the basis for the country's development. Angola had an inflation rate of 3,000 percent a year. Today our inflation is 10 percent. We intend to make it 9 percent by next year. We have experienced a elevated economic growth as you all know. The last five years we have seen a 17 percent level of growth. It is this type of experience that we would like to transfer to other places in the world. So Angola as a nation became independent and conquered peace and Angola does not forget its values. The values on which it bases its external relations. Angola defends the right of countries to self determination and recognizes the rights of nations to an independent existence free from external involvement in the framework of a community of states that are free and equal ruled by right and where strength is excluded as a means to solve conflict. Angola has always been has always shown solidarity to peoples fighting for their own independence. Angola is against all forms of neocolonialism and defends that African institutions should solve African problems. Angola has a progressive stance in the context of international relations. Angola wants to join the construction of the new international order that gives consistency to an agenda of equality and development. These principles are infringed in the constitution of Angola and these principles also result from the latest legislative elections. Angolan diplomacy seeks to implement those principles in line to action both at the multilateral plan and in its relations with other states and its relations with the other countries of Africa and the other countries of the world. We are a multilateral country by conviction and we promote peace. Angola values the United Nations and its several agencies and it shows its will to contribute in the strengthening and the credibility of the United Nations actions and we want to participate in the reform of this institution. At the Angolan level Angola is engaged in the Sadeqa. It is also engaged in the community of eastern and southern African states and in the framework of these organizations Angola thinks that answers to political issues and security issues must be sought and also the economic issues that affect the continent. As we have mentioned Angola knows the scourge of war and knows the value of peace. In the economic sphere Angola only wants to achieve economic development and the well-being of its populations. We want to spread a regimen that values democracy and the respect for the law and Angola carries its solidarity to all those who have had to fight to restore their dignity. For these reasons I've just mentioned Angola without wanting to interfere in other peoples issues and aware of its capacities Angola would like to act as a moderating force and contribute to the resolution of problems that affect other countries. I'd like to refer specially to the two situations that have been marking the African political reality situations that deserve our attention and that are happening in two countries that are neighbors of Angola such as the Democratic Republic of the country and Zimbabwe. I avail myself of this opportunity to integrate these issues in the principles on which Angolan diplomacy are based and to which I have referred to previously. We seek to act to solve these conflicts on the basis of those principles. The firm respect in the principle of non-intervention in internal issues of other states second prioritize the involvement of prestigious institutions in African conflicts such as was the case of the Zimbabwe in the RDC and also at the level of the region of the Great Lakes with President Kibbeke and Obasanja serving as mediators in order to look for resolutions for the crisis that affected those countries. In relation to the humanitarian implications and sometimes the involvement of neighboring countries in conflicts Angola has also been exempt from those issues and seeks to give response to those conflicts with means that are adequate to those realities. Angola is also a part of the Portuguese speaking countries and has participated with those Portuguese speaking countries in the CPLP which is an international forum where we have been promoting our agenda of equality among states, mutual respect, solidarity and development. In the multilateral domain and economically speaking we are present in the economic commission of Central African countries. We are also chairs of the oil producing countries even though it is not an African institution. I wouldn't like to take much more time so I will say that it is necessary to highlight especially now that our situation is stable and peace has been achieved and democracy has been consolidated because our big objective is to consolidate democracy. We conducted legislative elections on September the 5th and it was already agreed that parliament would have powers to review the constitution. At this moment our parliament and national assembly is reviewing the constitution in order to define the nature of our performance. Whether we are going to be a parliamentary regiment or going to be protectionists and this constitution will be ready in August or in the middle of September and immediately after that we will have presidential elections. The adjournment of our electoral process continues because the government of Angola wants all institutions in power whether their central power or regional power have electoral validity and we want them to have been chosen by the people on the basis of the principle one man one vote. One thing is certain though is that all electoral processes in our country will be based on on secret scrutiny. This is the key principle for us. In summary your excellencies allow me to call your attention to the following issues that will provide a better comprehension of the political action of Angola in the regional and international sphere. We are a universalist country with enough capacities to enter into dialogue with all countries in the world on the basis of the principles that regulate the performance of states in the international community geographically and in the international political context requires that Angola is rational in its diplomatic performance and our belief in stability and democracy and regional stability the unity and economic integration are pillars on which our action rests. With respect all institutions we are part of as I have mentioned the Sadeq the CEAC and others with the unification of trusting and peaceful environment and in order to contribute to the establishment of lasting peace the foreign policy of Angola has been seeking to strengthen its diplomatic relations with other countries and this is how we justify the engagement of my country and the search for solutions in countries such as the RDC Zimbabwe and I would like to reaffirm Angola's engagement in the principles of peace. Our involvement in in the conflicts of those countries that I mentioned has given us recognition as a key player who does not believe in isolationism but on the contrary we are we believe in the participation of all in the search for the stability in the region and for the eradication of conflicts and other issues that have stalled the development of our country. Angolans want a stable continent with solid political institutions that will allow for the gradual for the gradual decrease of the difference between developed and developing countries we would like to eradicate pandemic and endemic diseases and mitigate the effects of natural catastrophes we would like to capacitate our populations in the technical and scientific spheres we would like to apply local talent locally we would like to enter into dialogue with other continents an inter-civilizational dialogue and a dialogue that foments cooperation among men in the search for issues that affect them internally thank you very much for your attention Mr. Minister thank you very much for that very comprehensive and and forward-looking agenda that you've set out before we turn to questions I did want to say a couple of thanks I wanted to thank Ambassador Diakita and the embassy for helping organize this as well as Larry Julin and Michael Samuels thank you very much and I and I wanted to welcome by the Angolan ambassador to the UN who is here Ambassador Ishmael thank you very much for being here and to our own CSIS team for organizing this gift of this to the minister a new publication that CSIS Africa program has just put out on US Africa engagement among the recommendations is really restoring some of the key relationships that haven't gotten perhaps the diplomatic attention that they should have and among those is obviously Angola we're having a roll out of this on June 11th at five o'clock and you're almost welcome to that I'll give this to you but thank you thank you very very much one question I wanted to you mentioned a number of the regional organizations in the UN you didn't mention the African Union in your time and I wonder what Angola's relationship there is and okay it's all good um let's uh why don't we take some questions I hope you can answer the question on the AU but we'll take a couple edit well let's take a couple at a time and um because we have about 15 to 20 minutes said to take some questions is that right so could you repeat what you would like to know about the African Union mentioned the African Union although you had mentioned uh uh Angola's engaged you you personally in your remarks relationship with the UN with Siak with Sadek with the Gulf of Guinea but not the African Union so that that would be perhaps my first question yeah um and we have a question here we'll take one here one here and one here and then we'll come back for another round Samuel at any juncture HHS I have an African Union question um the the president Gaddafi is the chair of the African Union and one of the issues that he has put forward and he's fighting hard on is the formation of the United States of Africa I know there are different blocks and different strategies different views I I wonder where Angola stands on this and minister thank you for your very dynamic and forward-looking speech as Jennifer Cook noted for some time there's been discussion about changing the emblems of Angola looking forward notably the flag the national crest there's been much debate what do you personally think uh is the future for the symbols of Angola will there be a change in the near term my name is Luis Costa and I work for the voice of America Mr. Minister I would like to two weeks ago while you were in Russia Angola newspapers said that President Medved Chancellor Merkel as well as President Obama may visit Angola in the near future and I wonder I don't know how far you can go if in your meeting today with Secretary Clinton did you talk about specifically about the chance of President Obama going to Angola in the near future or President Santos coming to the US in the near future thank you very much thank you very much for the questions you you asked and I will uh will try to answer to all your doubts I'll start by uh start with the African Union question first I'd like to say that but I did mention in my presentation that we are working with the African Union and other regional institutions I don't know if this translator got that passage right obviously obviously the African Union is the mother of our institutions and we and we all belong to to that institution it espouses principles that we all respect and principles that guide regional relations concerning the the governing of this institution and the formation of the United States of Africa I should I should say that this is an old concern not only Mr. Gaddafi but we have all always wanted to create a common market the African Union was created in 1963 with the fundamental objective of eradicating colonialism and apartheid and those tasks have been carried out however the African Union did not stop having economic concerns for example the Abuja summit in Nigeria in 1980 which was a summit only to discuss economic issues and the future of the organization of the continent in terms of a common market there were other meetings specifically to discuss the external debt of Africa which amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars however however the issue of a common market has always been present we wanted to create a market that is now that now exist in in Europe after after the elimination of the colonialism the organization of the African Union transformed itself into the African group in order to better deal with modern issues in order to deal with the issue of the free market several comedies were created to analyze the issues and the mechanisms to reach monetary union and the use of a single currency however there are some entities that believe in shortcuts in order to create an African government however to do that we must find common points we must find points in which our our economies converge and we have to follow europe's example the europe the european union has been in discussion for 50 years but the european government has not yet been achieved some favor the formation of an african government immediately and though we want the same objective we believe in structural and progressive changes until we reach the point where economies are are ready to absorb a single currency until we have similar criteria to converge until there are no more disparities between one country and another europe took dozens of years to reach cohesion in order to develop different economies at the same level even then when they sought to to converge and to politically unify europe there were countries that reproached the process the lisbon treaty was rejected by several countries so this unification and integration process is not automatic naturally angola believes in the in the creation of a economic union but we believe in doing so gradually we believe that there are steps that there is a whole sequence until we reach a certain stage political union can only come after we negotiate certain criteria angola is part of that as are all other countries in africa and we believe in a single government for the african union but that cannot be decreed by a legal disposition and the strategy of the african union is to promote more interaction among regional institutions to gain consistency to promote a larger convergence in the economies of our different countries and then later to integrate all those globally now the question of the symbols on the flag we discussed that when we went from a single party country to a multi-party country and this is the advantage of having strong democratic institutions this issue was discussed in parliament and the angolan people through their representative in the parliament decided which symbols should exist or not exist on the flag when there are institutions that are adequate to discuss and solve the issues of the people the people will transfer their issues to those institutions and those and they will discuss together with other countries beg your pardon together with other political parties and reach consensus the organ of sovereignty respected the decision made by the people i mentioned that we are a universal estate we we are capable and we want to have relations with the united states and other countries at the beginning of my intervention i did say that we agreed on exchanges from several delegations of different levels i myself was in one of those delegations when we spoke to the state secretary and we discussed the coming of our president of the us or a visit by miss robomato angola thank you so much for coming in and the message that you're delivering is is very welcome and and and very overdue i think many of people in the room here today have been working for a very long time to try to keep the bilateral relationship strong and healthy and i think we're encouraged to see your visit here and to hear this message my question is looking into the future in the next four years five years which areas in the bilateral relationship between the us and angola should move forward most rapidly is it the relationship with respect to building security capacity within africa for peacekeeping for management of militaries for maritime security is it rural development and agriculture which is emerging as a priority of this administration in its africa policy is it expanding the health cooperation which is also a priority in this administration and there are many other areas that we could talk about but it's it would be good to hear from you what kind of partnerships are you looking for specifically in this next five four five-year period can we should we get no no no okay okay oh we only get you here so sorry you you have no time what you see is the priority areas for engagement what will progress the most rapidly in the in this okay thank you very much for your question we make political analysis we conduct political uh progressions we don't have a crystal ball so obviously angola and the usa want to cooperate in several sectors there are sectors that already have a great level of development now it is certain that there are sectors that we prioritize the level of infrastructures and agriculture and energy so possibly those sectors will attract a lot of action but to say which ones specifically will depend on the the liveliness of each of those sectors in the implementation of development projects now if you ask me which sectors i would like to see develop faster first i would say issues related to persons in their global dimension the man as a human being and the man as the main actor of development the health of men to preserve the health of men and to educate men in several domains and to make men capable of being an important player in the development of the country in the academic field in the technical professional and scientific field so that he is capable of help in the development reconstruction of infrastructures and naturally the areas of health in addition to humanitarian in addition to humanitarian issues we would like to create the basis for sustainable development i have already mentioned here the military cooperation and we are renovating we are rethinking the nature of our army and we need the experience from countries like the united states but if you ask me which sectors i would like to see develop faster i would say that those are the sectors related to men in his entirety health training and capacity building