Carcavelos, Portugal, July 15, 2026 (Lusa) - The President of Mozambique argued on Wednesday that the country should focus on “results-oriented economic and trade cooperation” with Portugal, calling for a strategic partnership between the two countries, which enjoy “an excellent relationship”.
“We must focus on results-oriented economic and trade cooperation, and transform trade relations into strategic partnerships; we have the advantage of friendship, cooperation, history and a common language, which is extremely important as a tool for cooperation”, said Daniel Chapo at the EurAfrican Forum, organised by the Portuguese Diaspora Council, which is taking place today and on Thursday in Carcavelos, on the outskirts of Lisbon, under the theme ‘Africa on the Rise: Prosperity through Global Cooperation’.
In a conversation with the President of Portugal, António José Seguro, the Mozambican president highlighted the “excellent relations” between the two countries and invited Portuguese businesspeople to invest in Mozambique, emphasising the enormous opportunities in the areas of extractive resources, as well as in agriculture, tourism and energy.
“This is the right time to invest, to establish a solid relationship at the project planning stage, because by the time implementation begins it may already be too late – there won’t be much work left to do,” he added.
During the conversation, which lasted almost an hour and a half and was often conducted in an informal tone between the two presidents, Daniel Chapo thanked Portugal for its assistance in various areas, ranging from security in Cabo Delgado province to tackling the effects of the floods and cyclones that have affected the country in recent months, emphasising that climate change is a problem affecting many countries.
“We must have infrastructure that is resilient to natural disasters in both Portugal and Mozambique, and begin to plan our strategic development whilst always bearing in mind climate change, which is a reality,” emphasised the Mozambican president.
“As a government, we must address the challenge of climate change by including it in our projects and strategic vision for the coming years, by building resilient infrastructure, but also in the area of spatial planning – by not permitting construction in areas prone to flooding and extreme rainfall and by reorganising and relocating illegal settlements, which are just some of the many challenges we face in relation to climate change,” he added.
For Daniel Chapo, the two countries are “two families with historic ties and shared struggles”, which has led to there being 13,000 Mozambicans in Portugal and 40,000 Portuguese in Mozambique, and there are 1,100 Portuguese companies in Mozambique, to which Portugal is the seventh-largest supplier.
Cooperation between the two countries, he emphasised, “must focus on economic and trade cooperation and be results-oriented”, which could be made easier by the implementation of a €500 million credit line that is expected to be operational “very soon”, he concluded.
Daniel Chapo began an official visit to Portugal on Tuesday, which includes, in addition to attending the EurAfrican Forum, a meeting with the country's president this afternoon at the Belém Palace, and a visit to parliament on Thursday, where a meeting is scheduled with the speaker, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco.
The official programme released by the Portuguese ministry of foreign affairs also includes an official dinner hosted by the Presidency on Thursday and lunch on Friday with the Portuguese prime minister, Luís Montenegro.
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