South Korea president opens US tour with NASA space centre visit

 President Yoon Suk Yeol’s six-day visit marks the 70th anniversary of the US-South Korean alliance, forged in 1953.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has toured a NASA flight centre, as his country and the United States signed a joint statement to increase their collaboration in technology and space exploration.

“I’ve always believed that mankind’s future lies in space,” Yoon said on Tuesday in a speech from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where he was joined by US Vice President Kamala Harris.

Yoon underscored his vision for transforming South Korea into “one of the world’s top five leaders in space technology”, with plans to reach the moon for “resource extraction” by 2032 and land astronauts on Mars by 2045.

In her remarks, Harris called the US-South Korean alliance “a linchpin of security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and around the world”.

She credited the alliance with tackling “some of the most important and pressing issues of our time”, including the two countries’ “collective defence in the face of aggression and provocation”, a seeming reference to North Korea and its recent missile tests.

Harris also addressed a shared commitment to confronting the climate crisis. “Together our nations have built and placed satellites in orbit that can track air pollution in North America and Asia,” she said.

“Today I have also directed the National Space Council, which I lead, to expand this network to ensure that it also covers the southern hemisphere, specifically the continent of Africa and South America. This cannot be a global initiative if any nations around the world are excluded.”Yoon’s visit to the space flight centre — one of NASA’s original research hubs — marked the first leg of a six-day US tour, which will include a formal White House visit on Wednesday with his US counterpart, President Joe Biden.

The trip marks the South Korea’s first state visit to Washington, DC, in nearly 12 years and the first state visit from an Indo-Pacific leader during Biden’s term in office.

Yoon’s tour is also timed to the 70th anniversary of the 1953 Mutual Defense Treaty, which established the two countries’ alliance. He spent part of Tuesday visiting the Arlington National Cemetery — a memorial site largely for military personnel — as well as the Korean War Memorial with Biden.

While in the US, Yoon is expected to push for greater economic cooperation with Washington. Before his initial meeting with Biden on Tuesday, he called for the countries’ bond to “leap into a new phase” and “evolve into a supply chain and future-oriented, innovative-technology alliance”.

His trip coincided with several high-profile deals between US and South Korean industries.

On Monday, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos announced his company would invest $2.5bn in South Korean programming after a meeting with Yoon. And on Tuesday, the US carmaker General Motors announced it would partner with Samsung SDI to construct a $3bn electric vehicle battery plant in the US.

In addition to economic ventures, the US has teased “major deliverables” to be announced during the formal visit on Wednesday, including “with respect to the threat” North Korea poses.

“This visit, of course, also comes at a critical moment, as North Korea continues to develop its nuclear and missile capabilities,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday. “The two leaders will have a chance to consult closely on that.”

Sullivan’s statement comes as the US continues to wrestle with the fallout from the release of classified documents online, some of which purport to show the Biden administration spying and putting pressure on South Korea to supply ammunition destined for Ukraine.

Those documents appeared to signal strain between the two allies, though US officials have been quick to affirm that relations with South Korea are “ironclad”.

The US and South Korea are both part of the non-binding NASA Artemis Accords, a multilateral agreement to collaborate on crewed missions to the moon.

The agreement signed on Tuesday at the Goddard space centre is slated to reinforce that commitment, as well as broker collaboration across spaced-based communication, navigation and technology.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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Portugal should take ‘responsibility’ for slavery, president says

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is the first Portuguese leader to suggest an apology for his country’s key role in the transatlantic slave trade.

Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said his country should take responsibility and apologise for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, the first time a Portuguese leader has suggested offering a national apology.

From the 15th to the 19th century, 6 million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported across the Atlantic by Portuguese vessels and sold into slavery, primarily to work on plantations in Brazil.

Rebelo de Sousa said on Tuesday that the country should go beyond just an apology, though he did not offer any specifics. The president was speaking at Portugal’s annual commemoration of the 1974 “Carnation” revolution, which toppled the country’s dictatorial Estado Novo system.

“Apologising is sometimes the easiest thing to do: you apologise, turn your back and the job is done,” the president said, adding that Portugal should “assume responsibility” for its past to build a better future.

Rebelo de Sousa made his remarks after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was in Portugal on his first visit to Europe since assuming office, addressed the Portuguese parliament. Brazil gained independence from Portugal in 1822.

He said the colonisation of Brazil also had positive factors, such as the spread of Portuguese language and culture.

“(But) on the bad side, the exploitation of Indigenous people… slavery, the sacrifice of the interests of Brazil and Brazilians,” he said.

Brazil’s human rights minister, Silvio Almeida, said Rebelo de Sousa had taken an “extremely important” step.

“We continue to suffer in Brazil the effects of a legacy of slavery,” Almeida said in a statement.

“Recognising the exploitation of millions of enslaved people for more than 300 years is a step towards moving towards a less unequal society.”

The Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights told Portugal in 2021 that it should do more to face up to its colonial past and role in the transatlantic slave trade as a way to combat contemporary racism and discrimination in the country.

“It is important to shed light on the historically repressive structures of colonialism, ingrained racist biases and their present-day ramifications”, Commissioner Dunja Mijatović said at the time, noting that including such history in school curricula would be useful.

Little is currently taught in Portugal’s schools about the country’s central role in the slave trade.

From the 16th century, Portugal established sugar plantations – then the world’s most prized commodity – in Brazil, using slaves who were shipped across the Atlantic from the west coast of Africa.

The transatlantic slave trade became an extremely lucrative international enterprise involving all of Europe’s colonising power, with the British, Dutch, French and Spanish joining Portugal in the trade in people.

Paula Cardoso, founder of the Afrolink online platform for Black professionals in Portugal, said the president’s remarks were “symbolic” but important as they brought the issue to the table.

“(But) I would have liked to hear something more concrete from the president,” Cardoso told Reuters. “To have some impact, these reflections… have to be accompanied by measures and commitments.”

Reparations and public policies to fight inequalities caused by Portugal’s past are essential, Cardoso said.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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South Africa backtracks on quitting ICC, blames communications error

The ruling ANC says South Africa’s withdrawal had been raised at a weekend meeting of its executive council but the country remains a signatory to the court.

South Africa is not planning to quit the International Criminal Court (ICC) as suggested earlier by President Cyril Ramaphosa, his office says, citing a communication error from his ruling ANC party.

Hours earlier, Ramaphosa had said the African National Congress had decided to withdraw South Africa from the court, which last month issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The ICC warrant means South Africa – due to host this year’s BRICS summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – would have to detain Putin on arrival.

“The presidency wishes to clarify that South Africa remains a signatory” to the ICC, Ramaphosa’s office said on Tuesday in a late-night statement.

It said the “clarification follows an error in a comment made during a media briefing held by the governing African National Congress”.

The ANC had earlier told journalists that the issue of South Africa withdrawing from the ICC had been raised at a weekend meeting of its national executive council.

Then, when questioned by a journalist during a joint news conference with visiting Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Ramaphosa said the ANC “has taken that decision that it is prudent that South Africa should pull out of the ICC”.

The presidency said “regrettably” Ramaphosa had “erroneously affirmed a similar position” to the ruling party.

In another statement Tuesday night, the ANC said an “unintended impression may have been created that a categorical decision for an immediate withdrawal had been taken. This is not so.”

It said the executive committee, the party’s supreme decision-making body, had discussed the “unequal” and “often selective application of international law by the ICC”.

The arrest warrant against Putin followed accusations that the Kremlin unlawfully deported Ukrainian children.

On whether South Africa would arrest Putin, Ramaphosa said, “That matter is under consideration.” But ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula earlier declared, “Putin can come anytime in this country.”

Pretoria has close ties with Moscow, which date back decades to when the Kremlin supported the ANC’s fight against apartheid.

The continental powerhouse has refused to condemn the invasion of Ukraine, which has largely isolated Moscow on the international stage, saying it wants to stay neutral and prefers dialogue to end the war.

South Africa has “adopted this stance of being non-aligned to ensure that we are able as a country to play a role in helping conflict to come to an end,” Ramaphosa said.

He said he had spoken to Putin several times about the need for negotiations.

Ramaphosa, who last year blamed NATO for the war in Ukraine, said he respected Finland’s recent decision to join the military alliance.

“It’s within Finland’s right to decide to join NATO. We respect that and we accept that,” said Ramaphosa as he hosted his Finnish counterpart, who is in South Africa for a three-day state visit.

South Africa made an attempt to pull out of the ICC in 2016 after a dispute a year earlier when then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited the country for an African Union summit. It refused to arrest him despite him being the subject of an ICC arrest warrant for alleged war crimes.

That decision to pull out was revoked when a domestic court ruled such a move would have been unconstitutional.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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Border Police prevent over 102 DRC citizens from illegally entering Angola

 Mbanza Kongo - One hundred and two Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) citizens were Saturday in Mbanza Kongo questioned by the Border Police, in northern Zaire Province, for attempting to violate the region´s land border.

The DRC citizens were trying to enter national territory through the land border posts of Cuimba, Nóqui and Mpala, revealed Sunday the spokesman of the Provincial Delegation of the Interior Ministry in Zaire, Sérgio Afonso, adding that among them 30 are women.

According to source, after the fulfilment of the legal procedures, 35 immigrants were referred to the Migration and Foreigners Service (SME) in the region, while 67 others (32 men and 35 women) were deported on the same day to their home country.

Sérgio Afonso said that the Border Police officers deployed at several border posts with the DRC have strengthened in recent days the control and monitoring actions at the border area with this neighboring country.

The province of Zaire, located in the northern region of Angola, shares 310 kilometers of border with the DRC.

Angolans in UAE praise continued reforms

 Luanda - Angolans residing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) defended, Saturday in Luanda, continuous reforms in Angola, for greater attraction of investments and development of the country in several fields.

This was the conclusion agreed upon by the participants who attended the round-table on “Angola, yesterday, today and tomorrow – challenges and solutions for Social and Economic Development”, promoted by the Association of Angolans and Friends in UAE.

According to a document that ANGOP has had access to, at the meeting which is part of the celebration of April 04, which marks the Peace and National Reconciliation Day, the Angolans residing in that Middle East country, praise the ongoing reforms and presented some suggestions and solutions for the country's social and economic development.

Among other challenges, the Angolans pointed to the improvement of the business environment with the aim of promoting the construction of a society based on values and opportunities for carrying out projects, in addition to the need to prioritize brotherhood, solidarity, social justice and national unity.

The chairman of the aforementioned organization, Adelina Veso, considered that the signing of the peace and national reconciliation agreement was one of the highest points of Angola´s history, after the national independence, held on November 11, 1975.

“After 21 years, we are aware that there is still a lot of work to be done to build the country we want and deserve, and not less important, we are aware that for this goal everyone's participation is indispensable”, she said.

The event sponsored by the diplomatic and consular missions of Angola and UAE, was attended by the Angolan community living in this country.

The Vice-consul of Angola in Dubai, Ismael Filipe, the lawyer Acúrcio Estevão and the businessman Afonso Sanana, who have been residents in the Emirates for 17 years, were the main speakers of the debate.

In the Extended Consultative Council of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, held from 11 to 13 April 2023, in Luanda, the Head of State, João Lourenço, recommended the diplomatic and consular missions to pay particular attention to the diaspora, in meeting their needs of legal-consular nature.

He advocated that Angolan citizens in the diaspora, through these missions, should be permanently informed about relevant events in the country, to commemorate together the main national holidays, and to encourage the holding of community activities in order to promote Angolan culture and gastronomy abroad.

Angola defends mobilisation of financing for developing countries

 New York - Angolan diplomat considered the mobilisation of financing for developing countries a big challenge for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The statement came from the charge d'affaires of the Permanent Mission of Angola to the United Nations in New York João Gimolieca, at the UN headquarters.

The diplomat, who was speaking at the Forum on Financing for Development, said that this challenge also has an impact on the implementation of Agenda 2063: The Africa we want.

“Now, we live in multiple and interconnected global crises and we must embrace change by taking immediate action to increase development cooperation and investments in the SDGs, reform the international financial architecture, strengthen cooperation on macroeconomic policies and implement actions to accelerate sustainable development in support of developing countries”, he pointed out.

According to João Gimolieca, Angola welcomes the efforts made by the UN Secretary General to fill the SDG funding gap and looks forward to further discussions on the proposal to stimulate the SDGs.

The aim, he said, is to address the high cost of debt and the rising risks of rising sovereign debt, to massively increase long-term financing for development and to expand contingency finance to countries in need.

For the diplomat, new and additional climate finance for developing countries is extremely important to help and support the implementation of policies for mitigation and adaptation to climate change and to improve access to this climate finance.

During his speech, he highlighted the urgent need for developed countries to provide the means of implementation necessary for developing countries to face climate change, including concessional financing, at least double the adaptation financing, as well as to finalise the operation of the damages and facilitate the full transfer of technology and technical assistance necessary for just transitions.

He highlighted that, despite the vigorous reforms implemented over the last five years by the Government, which created the necessary conditions for the sustainable development of the country, Angola has experienced successive periods of economic recession, to which are added the negative effects of the current health and geopolitical tensions, which resulted in the deterioration of indicators socioeconomic.

In view of this situation, he added, the Government of Angola was forced to review its development strategies, having defined three priority areas for the next 2023-2027 Development Plan, the first being the development of human capital, with the aim of increasing productivity.

Second, expansion and modernisation of infrastructure, to improve mobility, and third, diversification of the economy, with a focus on food security.

The Ambassador emphasized that funding in these three areas is crucial to achieving and fulfilling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In the opening session on Monday (17), the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, called on the group of the largest global economies, the G20, for a stimulus of at least 500 billion dollars a year so that the economies in development achieve global goals.

The four-day high-level meeting addressed threats to sustainable progress.

Angola invited for "Maracana Football" World Cup

 Luanda - Angola has been invited to participate in the first edition of the World Cup of an emerging sport called "Maracana Football", it was announced Sunday in Luanda.

The invitation was issued by the president of the International Federation of Maracana Football and Associations (FIIMA), Bleu Charlemagne, as part of cooperation with Angola, taking into account the sporting performances achieved in African and world football. 

The specific objective is for Angola to export this sport in the southern region of the African continent at a time when it is practiced in more than 80 countries in the world, but only in the European and American continent.

The general objectives are to disseminate it across the continent to occupy the free time of young people and to create synergies for closer relations between African countries and people.

Angolan minister of Youth and Sports, Palmira Barbosa received in Luanda on Sunday the Angolan ambassador to the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire Domingos Feliciano Pacheco to discuss the matter.

During the meeting the Angolan diplomat discussed with the Sports minister the interest of Ivory Coast in cooperating in sports, with emphasis on the “ Maracana Football ", a variant of indoor football or beach football, practiced in Abidjan, particularly.

The Angolan diplomat said the Abidjan-based FIIMA has prepared a team of technicians to travel to Angola and transmit knowledge on the subject to young students.

In response, the Angolan minister, Palmira Barbosa, praised the initiative of the Angolan Embassy in Côte d'Ivoire, as well as the intention expressed by the FIIMA leader. 

She said the matter will be discussed in a proper forum and as soon as conditions are created the Youth and Sports Ministry will do the opposite, by sending to Abidjan a delegation of technicians to learn the rules of the game of this variant of football.