Luanda - The President of the Republic, João Lourenço, returned to the country on Wednesday, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he participated in the 19th G20 Summit, held between 18 and 19 November.
At 4 de Fevereiro International Airport, the Head of State, accompanied by the First Lady, Ana Dias Lourenço, was received by the Vice-President of the Republic, Esperança da Costa, and other personalities.
In Rio de Janeiro, nicknamed as Marvelous City, João Lourenço held a working meeting with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with bilateral cooperation at the center of the conversation.
He also had meetings with the chairman of the European Council, Charles Michel and the chairman the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, the director general of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Audrey Azoulay, and the CEO of the Industrial Pharmaceutical Group EMS, Carlos Sanchez.
João Lourenço participated in the Leaders' Declaration and had a brief conversation with the US president, Joe Biden.
At the summit that brought together 55 delegations from 40 countries and 15 international organizations, as a guest observer, the Angolan president spoke on the themes “The Global Alliance to Fight Hunger and Poverty” and “Energy Transition”.
Speaking on the first day of the event, the Head of State stated that it was imperative to look at the issue of combating hunger and poverty, from the same perspective and with the same sensitivity.
For João Lourenço, hunger is a scourge that fundamentally affects developing countries, but it is not an evil exclusive to these geographies, as the phenomenon is also observed in developed, industrialized countries with a large Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Regarding the “Energy Transition”, he said that Angola has been taking its climate action program “very seriously”, in order to effectively contribute to reducing the adverse effects of environmental pollution.
To this end, he clarified that 64% of the energy produced in Angola is generated by clean sources, of which 60% comes from hydroelectric dams and 4% from photovoltaic solar energy parks.
The G20, created in 1999, comprises the eight countries considered the richest and most influential in the world (the G8), namely Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and Russia.
It also comprises the group of 11 emerging countries, which are South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey, with permanent status.
Likewise are the European Union and the African Union, which became permanent members at the last summit held in India, in September 2023.
The 19th G20 Summit in which the Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço, participated as a guest, ended on Tuesday (19), with the transfer of the Presidency from Brazil to South Africa, whose mandate begins on December 1st this year.
VIC/MRA/jmc
