Luanda, Nov. 14, 2025 (Lusa) - French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Angola on 24 November to attend the European Union-African Union (EU-AU) summit, at the end of an African tour that includes Mauritius, South Africa and Gabon.
Macron's trip aims to strengthen bilateral ties with African countries in a region where international influence is increasingly contested, according to the French presidency, quoted by the French news agency AFP.
In addition to attending the G20 summit in Johannesburg on 22nd and 23rd of November, the French head of state will be at the EU-AU summit to be held in Luanda shortly after that date.
Today, in an online meeting with journalists, Macron's diplomatic adviser highlighted, with regard to the Angolan leg of the trip, that the relationship with Angola is fundamental for President Macron, recalling that his counterpart João Lourenço visited Paris in January and that the French president himself visited Luanda in 2023, strengthening the partnership.
According to the adviser, Macron and João Lourenço maintain a close personal relationship and bilateral relations are growing: "There is a partnership that is growing, with a strong diversification of areas of cooperation and economic interests. Oil interests are historic, but today they are a minority compared to the other investments made in the country," he said.
However, he stressed that the focus of the visit to Luanda will be the EU-AU summit: "The focus of the visit will really be the EU-AU summit, an important summit because the last one was under the French presidency in 2022. And it was during that presidency that we worked decisively to announce an infrastructure support package called Global Gateway," which has a financial envelope of €150 billion, he said.
The Lobito Corridor, a strategic infrastructure that crosses Angola, connecting the port of Lobito to the mining and agricultural production regions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia, is one of Global Gateway's flagship projects.
On the first leg of his trip, on the 20th and 21st of November, Macron will visit Mauritius, where, according to AFP, he intends to strengthen strategic relations in the Indian Ocean and observe exercises involving French military forces and Mauritian coastguards.
This will be followed by engagements in South Africa, including the G20 in Johannesburg, where he is expected to meet with Cyril Ramaphosa and, potentially, with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
On 23 and 24 November, the French President will be in Gabon on a visit dedicated to strengthening bilateral cooperation and protecting the Congo's forests, before ending his tour in Luanda for the EU-AU meeting.
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