In a bid to boost investment and strengthen bilateral relations, Portugal and Mozambique have signed a memorandum of understanding on maritime and port transport.
Portugal’s Minster of the Sea, Ana Paula Vitorino, joined the Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Mozambique, Carlos Fortes Mesquita, in a signing ceremony in Oporto at which she said training will be increased and technology will be shared, such as the coastal maritime traffic system used by Portugal.
Minister Mesquita said that Mozambique “has an extremely strategic geographical position” in transport and logistics, particularly with its links to Zimbabwe, Malawi and the Republic of Zambia, Republic of Congo and South Africa’s northeast.
Mesquita said that Mozambique is developing both socially and economically and needs to link with other countries, especially as its oil and gas projects will lead to Mozambique becoming one of the major exporters of gas, diesel and fertilizers.
Both ministers said that existing bilateral relations are improved by shared traditions and Portugal and Mozambique’s “shared history” – referring to the arrival of Portuguese traders in the late C15th, centuries of colonisation and independence in 1975.
The meeting in the port of Leixões included a visit to the Ship Coordination Centre, port terminals and logistics platform, and the new Cruise Terminal, inaugurated in July 2015.
Comments
The British pressed Portugal to desist from the slave trade (different from slavery) in 1815, 1817, 1823, 1842 and 1871; I can find no record of an agreement to abolish slavery.
And of course, the Ultimatum happened as a result of the irritation felt by Salisbury over Portuguese attempts to establish themselves in the Nyassa territories where Scottish missionaries were already established. Salisbury felt that he had proof of Portuguese bad faith. And also as a result of pressure brought to bear on the Prime Minister by Cecil Rhodes and his South Africa Company.
The prime justification by the UK for claiming the disputed land of the British Ultimatum 1890 was to give the African an alternative to the endless hopelessness of Portuguese Slavery. Which, as all British should know by now, was to lead to the Portuguesa anthem lines "Attack the British". This is now lost to published Portuguese History - kept hidden from the English readership.
Check out the earliest listed bilateral Treaties at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website - the UK first getting agreement from Portugal to desist slavery in January 1815. Several more followed, such as April 1834 with no progress from Portugal. Slavery was still going on a century later !
http://treaties.fco.gov.uk/treaties/treaty.htm?pg=8