Also: Angola; Framework Agreement Signed With East Timor

Angola; President Dos Santos Pledges to Assist East Timor

Angola Press Agency

Angolan Head of State, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, and East Timor Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri

Angolan Head of State, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, said Tuesday here that despite all situations resulting from the war, Angola remains ready to assist the people of East Timor to rebuild the country.

Jose Eduardo was opening talks between delegations from Angolan and East Timor, as part of the visit of Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, to Angola.

"It will be a huge task to raise from ashes the basis of a new economy capable of satisfying the wishes of a population accustomed to sacrifices and needs of all kinds and, at the same time, guarantee a true national independence in an extremely competitive region", Eduardo dos Santos said.

To the Head of State, Angola is ready to share with East Timor all its experience accumulated along difficult years during which it was necessary to conciliate the war effort with initiatives directed to the normalisation of the political, economic and social life, in the search for solutions to the grave humanitarian crisis the country has still to overcome.

"We are thus open to the development of a multiform and mutually advantageous cooperation within the spirit of friendship and solidarity that characterised our relations in the past", the President stressed.

October 16, 2002 Wednesday

Angola; Framework Agreement Signed With East Timor

Angola Press Agency

Angola and East Timor Tuesday signed here a framework accord formalising the general bases for future bilateral cooperation. Signing the accord were Angolan foreign minister Joao Miranda and visiting East Timor's minister of planning and finance, Mrs Madalena Boavida.

The signature was witnessed by Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Timorean premier Mari Alkatiri.

Mario Alkatiri arrived Tuesday in Luanda for on a two-day official visit to Angola and was received at Luanda international airport by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

He is the first East Timor official visiting Angola officially since the country's independence on May 20, 2002.

On Wednesday the visiting prime minister will travel to the locality of Funda, near Luanda before touring the premises of the oil-related firm "Sonils" in the capital.

Mr. Alkatiri will be ending his official visit to Angola on Wednesday afternoon.

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