Mozambique and Brazil sign agreements

The Mozambican and Brazilian Foreign Ministers, Oldemiro Baloi and Aloysio Ferreira, on Thursday signed in Maputo legal instruments, notably on social security, to promote and strengthen cooperation relations between the two countries.Baloi explained that the social security agreement will allow citizens of both countries to enjoy the same rights in such matters as old age pensions and sickness benefits. “This agreement will make Brazilians feel less foreign in Mozambique, and Mozambicans less foreign in Brazil”, he said.The two ministers also signed memoranda of understanding on political consultations and on the environment.

Baloi said the agreement on political consultations “is a mere formalisation, since the practice is already consolidated between the two countries”.For his part, Ferreira said the Brazilian government has a vast range of projects in which it is cooperating with Mozambique, notably in agriculture, the environment, mineral resource management and rural development.Later in the day, Ferreira decorated Baloi with the National Order of the Southern Cross, the highest honour awarded by Brazil to foreigners.Baloi said that this honour represents for him the commitment of the teams who have accompanied him in his career as a public servant. He stressed that the Mozambican and Brazilian governments have made great efforts to guarantee progress in bilateral cooperation.

“The seeds sown by Brazilian and Mozambican leaders, more than four decades ago, have germinated and flowered in fertile ground”, he declared. “We can note, with great satisfaction, the undoubted evolution in relations between our two governments, the cooperation between our countries, and the ever greater closeness between our peoples”.

Ferreira praised the “vast experience” of Baloi in promoting peace, concord and cooperation between African countries and the members of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Counties (CPLP). He stressed that Baloi had used diplomacy as an instrument at the service of the development and well-being of Mozambicans.Ferreira also decorated one of Mozambique’s top writers, Paulina Chiziane, with the same honour.