ANGOLA NOS EUA

Angola took part in February in the first Critical Minerals Ministerial, held in Washington at the initiative of the United States Government and opened by Vice-President J. D. Vance.

The United States used the meeting to propose a Framework Agreement on Critical Minerals — common principles for responsible investment, technological cooperation and supply-chain resilience. For producing countries the significance is plain: the terms on which these minerals are financed, extracted and traded are being written now, and the countries at the table will help write them.

Angola was represented by Ambassador Agostinho Van-Dúnem, who called the Ministerial a significant milestone in the strengthening of Angolan economic diplomacy. The country's participation forms part of the IGED–USG Memorandum of Understanding for Scientific Cooperation in Earth Sciences.

Delegations from Angola and the American State of Ohio met in June, in Luanda, to examine how to deepen cooperation — with particular emphasis on investment, trade and business partnerships.

The Angolan delegation was led by Ambassador Esmeralda Bravo Conde da Silva Mendonça, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; the American delegation by Lydia Mihalik, Director of the Ohio Department of Development.

The Secretary of State reiterated Angola's commitment to a business environment that is increasingly attractive, transparent and competitive for foreign investment.

Angola's Minister of Environment, Ana Paula de Carvalho, held a working meeting in March of this year with United States Senator Martin Heinrich, in the United States of America — a meeting attended also by the Ambassador of the Republic of Angola to the United States of America, Agostinho Van-Dúnem.

The meeting made it possible to address matters of common interest relating to climate change, the conservation of biodiversity and the strengthening of environmental cooperation between Angola and the United States.

During the meeting the Minister set out the efforts the Angolan Government has been making in adapting to climate change, including the implementation of the first National Adaptation Plan, together with the measures under way to mitigate the effects of drought and water scarcity in some regions of the country, particularly in southern Angola.

Also presented were the advances achieved in expanding the country's conservation areas, with an increase in the number of environmental reserves and the creation of new protected areas, reinforcing the preservation of biodiversity and of Angola's emblematic species, such as the Giant Sable Antelope and the elephant.

On 29 July the African diplomatic corps accredited in Washington gathered at the Mission of the African Union to bid farewell to the Ambassadors of Egypt and of Gabon, at the close of their tours of duty.

The corps is one of the quieter but more consequential structures in this city. Its members coordinate positions ahead of multilateral meetings and speak with one voice on questions where fifty-five separate voices would be ignored. Tributes were paid, plaques presented, and the Embassy of Angola was represented.

The Embassy took part in July in the ASEZ WAO International Coffee Festival in Washington, presenting Angolan coffee alongside the country's culture and its investment case.

Angola's coffee history is longer than most visitors expect. Before 1975 the country was among the world's leading producers of robusta, and the plantations of Uíge, Cuanza Norte and Cuanza Sul supplied a substantial share of the European market. Rebuilding that sector is one of the clearer opportunities in Angola's agricultural diversification programme.

On 5 June the Embassy hosted the ceremony marking the handover of consular files from the Consulate in New York to Washington, and the farewell to Her Excellency Augusta Bessa at the end of her mission.

For the Angolan community, the practical point is worth stating plainly: consular matters previously handled by the New York post now run through the Embassy in Washington. Members of the community with pending processes should contact the consular section directly, and check the requirements published at angola.org before travelling.

Among the services the Embassy provides to the Angolan community resident in the United States is the celebration of civil marriages, conducted at the Chancery before family, friends and members of the community.

A diplomatic mission is a working building — visas, notes verbales, negotiations. It is also, for the community it serves, one of the few places abroad that is unambiguously theirs.

Angolan citizens wishing to marry at the Embassy should contact the consular section in advance to confirm the required documentation and available dates.

Fernando Marques, a career diplomat of the Ministry of External Relations serving at this Embassy, published in July his first book: a study of economic diplomacy and of what the Portuguese-speaking community might make of it.

The argument is that shared language and history are not sentiment but infrastructure — that cultural, historical and linguistic heritage emerges, in the author's words, as “a natural catalyst for economic growth and the promotion of collective prosperity”. The book examines trade within the CPLP, foreign direct investment, the role of diaspora communities, and subnational diplomacy — the state-to-state work that produced the Angola–Ohio meeting reported earlier in this edition.

With a preface by Ambassador Edite Ten Jua of São Tomé and Príncipe, the Portuguese edition runs to 254 pages and was launched on 6 August at the Memorial António Agostinho Neto in Luanda. An English edition, Fundamentals of Economic Diplomacy, is to follow, with launches planned for Lisbon and for Washington, D.C.