Remarks With Angolan Vice President Manuel Domingos Vicente Before Their Meeting

WASHINGTON, August 5, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Remarks

John Kerry

Secretary of State

Treaty Room

Washington, DC

August 4, 2014

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, good morning. Again, it’s my distinct pleasure to welcome Vice President Vicente here to Washington and to tell him how much I appreciated my welcome when I was in Angola. We had a wonderful visit with President Dos Santos, with the foreign minister, and much of his delegation who are here today.

I want to thank him and the Government of Angola for their tremendous cooperation and their leadership with respect to the Kimberley Process and the Great Lakes Process, with respect to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the M23, the FDLR, and the issue of trying to resolve that crisis once and for all. Their leadership has been very, very important.

We have also have been – and they chair, I might add, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, and help – and have helped significantly resolving that conflict. President Dos Santos’ stature, his seniority in the region, and his leadership have been very, very important to helping to set up the principles, which have helped to bring that crisis to a road, a path, that everybody understands could bring peace.

In addition, we have strengthened our economic relationship with Angola, and we look forward to doing so even more. And we congratulate Angola on the significant job that they have done to help to reintegrate some 500,000-plus people who were displaced as a result of their very long civil war.

So there is a great deal that is happening, and Angola is one of the countries that is evidence of the transformation that is taking place in Africa. And we are very happy to welcome the vice president here today and to have a chance to talk about these things. Thank you.

Vice President VICENTE: Thank you very much.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you, sir. Please.

Vice President VICENTE: Well, I’m – I’ll address to you in Portuguese.

SECRETARY KERRY: I think we have somebody to —

VICE PRESIDENT VICENTE: I don’t know if there is a translation here. Okay. (In Portuguese.)

SECRETARY KERRY: (In Portuguese.) Do we have our – we don’t have him here. I know he’s speaking – we were counting on his excellent English, which I know he speaks, but basically – do you want to summarize, or do you want me to just say —

VICE PRESIDENT VICENTE: You can.

SECRETARY KERRY: The quickest summary in the world is that he said he was very happy to be here in Washington with the Secretary of State, very happy to be here as part of this conference, that he looks forward to working with us and the continued stabilization of the continent of Africa. He talked about the growth and development and economic relationship. And I think that’s the quickest summary. Is that fair?

VICE PRESIDENT VICENTE: That’s good.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you. All right.

VICE PRESIDENT VICENTE: Thank you.