Cuban leader reaffirms support for Angola

Monday, August 21st 2023 - 10:37 UTC

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Díaz-Canel's next stop will be the BRICS Summit in South Africa

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel ratified this weekend during an official trip to Luanda his country's support to the Angolan government, it was reported.

“The conviction that Cuba will continue to support the Angolan government and people as long as the Angolan government and people need it” and that “Cuba will comply with this postulate” was ratified by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, according to Havanna media.

Díaz-Canel met with members of Cuba's cooperation teams in the African nation after arriving Sunday afternoon (local time) for a two-day official visit at the invitation of President Joao Laurenco. Joining the presidential entourage was Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.

The Cuban leader insisted that Cuba's workers were based on the solidarity and humanism of the Revolution, thus fulfilling the visionary idea put forward by Fidel when he said that the future of Angola had to go through a whole process of recovery and development after independence was achieved. There are 2,056 Cubans in Angola, including 1,058 men and 998 women, including 1,171 healthcare practitioners.

Angolan Health Ministry's Regla Angulo said the meeting was attended by a representation of the collaborators in Luanda because of the country's size which made it very difficult for them to come from other places, in addition to others being on call. Angulo also explained that the Angolan government's strategy was focused on training its own staff, a policy in which Cuba's participation was fundamental, particularly of Cuban physicians helping local more than 3,000 local resident doctors (or interns).

In exchange, Cuban doctors get acquainted with rare diseases or diseases that have been eliminated in Cuba but Angolan doctors know very well because they successfully face them every day.

Díaz-Canel insisted that this trip to Angola had already been planned in 2020, but could not be carried out due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He is also to attend this week's BRICS Summit in South Africa after his very busy schedule in Angola.