FBIS SOV 88 210 31 October 1988 concluding a definitive agreement from which will result Angola security and Namibia independence. Other current international issues were also broached at the meeting as well as matters pertaining to bilateral cooperation between Angola and the USSR.
The Angolan president is bound to have made references to the Soviet experience in the construction of socialist society, especially at a time when the Soviet people are involved in the restructuring process, perestroyka.
During the visit meetings also took place with Soviet officials to discuss practical aspects of cooperation between the two countries.
The itinerary of the visit included the Belorussian capital, Minsk, where Jose Eduardo dos Santos met the leadership of the republic Communist Party.
Appraising the results of his visit to the USSR on the eve of the Great October Socialist Revolution anniversary and of the anniversary of the proclamation of Angola independence, the Angolan president stated. Begin Dos Santos recording believe that this visit represents an important landmark in the history of Angolan Soviet relations because on the eve of great events we have established programs for the future which will tighten even further our relations of friendship, solidarity, and cooperation and make our cooperation more efficient and effective, more in keeping with the potential capacity of our two countries, on the basis of mutual benefit and equality that has always characterized our relations. end recording Angolan Minister Speaks on Namibian Independence LD2710121688 Moscow TASS in English 1146 GMT 27 Oct 88 Text Luanda October 27 TASS Countries which are parties to the quadripartite talks on a settlement in South Western Africa continue regarding November as the date when Security Council Resolution 435 on granting independence to Namibia goes into force, an Angolan minister has said.
Pedro de Castro van Dunem, a member of the MPLAWorker Party Central Committee Politbureau, Angola minister of state for the productive sphere, minister of petroleum and energy, said as much at a meeting in Luanda on Wednesday.
Addressing the opening session of a seminar on oil prospecting and extraction in the countries grouped in the Southern African Development Coordination Committee (SADCC. the minister said that the talks had produced substantial results and were drawing to a close.
22 INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Despite South Africa attempts to stall the decolonization process in Namibia, the remaining difficulties could be overcome, provided all the parties concerned displayed sufficient flexibility, the minister added.
The Angolan Government was doing all in its powers, the minister concluded, to achieve a durable peace in South Western Africa still living in an atmosphere of instability and tension, something he blamed on the Pretoria regime.
Lagos Meeting Discusses African Debt Crisis LD2910225888 Moscow Domestic Service in Russian 1030 GMT 29 Oct 88 Excerpts session of the African leadership forum has taken place in Lagos. passage omitted The situation is difficult for many African countries. Passage omitted considerable proportion of the problems is rightly linked to external factors. This was also discussed at the African leadership forum. Those who took part in it noted that Africa foreign debt has risen substantially in the past few years and now amounts to 218 billion. Essentially the developing countries are now simply financing the developed countries of the West. At the forum it was reported, for instance, that this year Africa will pay the West 45 billion in interest alone, while is revenues from exports will not exceed 30 billion.
External forces, through the World Bank and the IMF, are regulating international trade to the detriment of the developing countries, which has led to the immense trade deficit of the Third World countries. As a result, they are forced to contract more and more new loans.
The participants in the African leadership forum session spoke of the need to search for their own ways of getting out of this situation and to set up their own organizations capable of resolving the continent economic problems.
However, the debt burden is essentially depriving the developing countries of their very economic independence. As chairman of the African Leadership Forum Retired General Olusegun Obasanjo, former head of the Nigerian Government, stated, representatives of the World Bank and the IMF are operating in key posts of the debtor countries, making it impossible for any serious economic decision to be made by them without the creditors knowing.
Resolving the problems of the economy simply through the efforts of the African countries will not succeed.
Therefore, General Obasanjo said, when speaking of the restructuring programs imposed both by the IMF and the World Bank, should one not state the need to restructure the very capital fondy of the bank and Western institutions similar to it in order to ensure a just international economic order.