Windhoek
Tourism, trade, free movement of Africans on the continent and intra-Africa relations were some of the issues that made up discussions between President Hage Geingob and the acting head of state of the Cape Verde Islands, Jorge Santos.
Geingob was in Cape Verde on Saturday during a mandatory technical stopover to allow the plane crew to rest as per international aviation rules.
Geingob and his delegation left earlier that day for the United States of America to attend the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly.
As a sign of respect and the high regard in which he holds Geingob’s leadership on the continent, Santos travelled from the capital Praia, which is 30 kilometres away, to meet him.
Santos expressed appreciation on behalf of Cape Verdeans that Geingob was able to make a stopover to briefly visit Cape Verde and also allocate time for bilateral discussions.
According to Geingob’s press secretary Albertus Aochamub, the two leaders discussed behind closed doors a wide range of bilateral issues of importance between the two countries.
“The two heads of state agreed to enhance the relations between the two fraternal countries, especially in the areas of trade and tourism,” said Aochamub.
“They further dealt with the question of movement of goods and services across Africa to improve intra-Africa trade and tourism.”
He added that Geingob and Santos emphasised the need for further relaxation of movement of Africans on the continent as businesspersons and tourists.
“The two presidents also touched on how to enhance the role of the Pan-African Parliament,” Aochamub further said.
Before leaving Windhoek on Saturday, Geingob promised that he would not go on the trip to simply sit in his hotel room but would capitalise and optimise until his journey ends in October.
He is expected to meet two other heads of state, attend the Clinton Global Initiative, speak at the African Policy Forum and have other meetings and official engagements.
Geingob’s stopover in Cape Verde was necessitated by the fact that aviation rules require that they take a break of eight hours after flying that type of distance. The stopover is also aimed at reducing the total cost of having two sets of crews to fly the president on a distance of this type to the Americas.
Another crew would have typically taken over after having been positioned there for at least a day.