Republic of the Congo and Angola to Enhance Bilateral Relations

Being a good neighbor is an essential part of a good community. The same goes for neighboring countries. Only by working together, cooperating and collaborating on infrastructure projects and in economic sectors can nations, and the region at large, realize its full potential. This is precisely the goal that Central African neighbors Angola and the Republic of the Congo are striving for lately. While the two countries experienced a slight setback in relations last October, the Republic of the Congo and Angola have since worked valiantly to patch up this breach. Last month, analysts from both nations met in Pointe-Noire, Congo-Brazzaville. President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo and President Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola agreed to have this meeting so their analysts could jointly investigate the Pangui incident in a candid and cooperative manner.

In the same cooperative spirit, Basile Ikouebe—Foreign Minister of the Republic of the Congo—has called for greater dynamism in the Angola-Congo Joint Commission. The commission should strive for integration, a higher level of economic cooperation between the two nations. This came about just before a visit to Angola, in which President Nguesso and Ikouebe are meeting with President Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola and Ikouebe’s counterpart to figure out how to best utilize the Joint Commission. Up until now, as President dos Santos has pointed out, they “have a great joint commission that does almost nothing, whereas the two countries have sectors in which they could cooperate more, like those of oil, security and the armed forces.”

Ikouebe agreed with President dos Santos’s sentiments exactly. Both nations have reserves of oil and gas, both underground and offshore. In fact, Angola produces and exports more petroleum than any other nation in Sub-Saharan Africa. For both these nations, the oil industry is a key to diversification. Using their oil profits, the nations can then invest in diversifying their economy and advance their infrastructures. This has been the running narrative for the Republic of the Congo who has been making immense strides towards a fully modern infrastructure. President Nguesso made a pledge back in 2011 to electrify the entire country. Thanks to the kind of international cooperation that Angola and ROC are pursuing, the Republic of the Congo has been widely successful in this endeavor.

Security is another area of potential cooperation. Especially in light of the cross-border incident at Pangui in October 2013, this is an area of very relevant concern. The efficient and benign way in which this incident was handled, however, shows that the two nations are ready to collaborate on this matter. Like in any region, peace is best for all countries, but with convulsions in Central African Republic spilling over borders, it is important that nations like Angola and Republic of the Congo come together and maintain active cooperation in matters of security. It is because of these shared interests that President Nguesso has been in Angola since March 25, attending the mini summit of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR)—a group that further demonstrates Africa’s increasing integration as the ICGLR includes 12 nations from Angola on the Atlantic to Kenya on the Indian Ocean.