Abidjan — The Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço, invited his counterpart from Côte d'Ivore, Alassane Ouattara, to visit Angola, on a future agenda.

The invitation is in return for his counterpart's gesture, which is the basis of the two-day visit that President João Lourenço has been carrying out since Thursday to Côte d'Ivoire.

Speaking at the signing ceremony of 14 agreements to strengthen bilateral cooperation, he recalled the presence of Alassane Ouattara at the inauguration for his first term in 2017, despite the difficult times his counterpart was going through, due to the death of a very close family member, which led him to not stay until the end of the ceremony.

The Head of State stressed that the two countries must commit to materializing the agreements signed to strengthen cooperation.

At the official dinner, he stated that he came to Cotê d'Ivoire to correct the negative trajectory of cooperation between the two countries.

He regretted the fact that throughout these 41 years, the only events worth highlighting in relations were limited to the state visit carried out by the former Angolan president to Cotê d'Ivoire, in 1985, and the participation of Alassane Ouattara in the inauguration ceremony of the Head of State in 2017.

"Cooperation between our countries should have followed a different path to live up to the spirit that guided the General Cooperation Agreement signed in 1985, but which did not work as expected, in order to boost reciprocal development", he said.

President João Lourenço is on his second and last day of official visit to Cotê d'Ivoire this Friday.

The statesman is to visit the Cemoi-Ci chocolate production factory and hold a meeting with Angolans residing in that country.