Thank you for your presence at this event which has become a tradition among us and is an opportunity for us to meet in an informal get together at the start of the new year.  I hope that all your dreams, expectations and aspirations will be fulfilled in 2006.

We hope that you will continue, so estimably and impartially, to fulfil the mandates conferred on you.   For our part, we shall seek, as far as possible, to provide ever better conditions to ensure that your honourable mission of representing your countries is successfully accomplished.

Angola wishes to establish ever closer and stronger relations of friendship and solidarity with all your countries, since the current situation of peace and stability creates a more favourable framework for increasing and diversifying cooperation between us.

Here everything remains to be done.  There are innumerable possibilities and opportunities for potential partners within the context of rehabilitating and expanding facilities and relaunching economic and social life.

Illustrious guests

Ladies and gentlemen

It is gratifying today to see how the international community is recognising and following the efforts we are making for reconciliation, reconstruction and developing the country.

We are going to continue to consolidate our democratic regime and to promote the country’s development, in order progressively to ensure dignity and wellbeing for all Angolans and to establish ourselves as sound and credible partners internationally.

Although the international situation continues to register the usual advances and setbacks, a collective wish to face up to the global problems experienced by humanity can be noted in many places and domains.  

Whether it be a question of the urgent solution of the many local conflicts, tackling the problems of underdevelopment, pandemics like HIV/Aids, the environment, or the fight against terrorism and illegal immigration, a global trend towards dialogue can be seen, seeking concerted views and compromise, with the aim of gradually achieving a new balance between the interests of nations and the consolidation of peace and international stability.

The Hong Kong conference on international trade was proof of this.  Although the steps taken were still very timid, this movement needs to be stimulated and strengthened by all peoples and governments that love peace and want progress for humanity.

It is not reasonable, in a globalised world, to expect that islands of prosperity and development can be maintained without being affected by the sea of serious problems that still afflict the majority of the world’s people. 

Only by lessening antagonisms by harmonising interests and ensuing reciprocal advantages in international relations will it be possible to achieve equitable and stable partnerships that prevent dangerous confrontations between rich and poor.

Rather than palliative and provisional solutions, substantial changes in relationship models and the sharing of responsibilities, risks and benefits are needed.

This idea should govern the restructuring of the United Nations, and Angola wants to contribute to the building of that better and more just, balanced and stable world.

Illustrious guests

Ladies and gentlemen

Just as national reconstruction, consolidating democracy and development are the priorities of Angola’s domestic policy, the preservation of peace and stability, dialogue, mutually agreed policies and reciprocally advantageous cooperation are the essential guiding principles of the Angolan government’s foreign policy.

I therefore express the wish that our relations will develop ever more closely and fraternally and that cooperation between our countries will in fact help to improve the living standards of our respective peoples and of humanity.

Happy 2006!