US wants closer ties with Angola

US president George W. Bush has informed his Angolan counterpart Jose Eduardo dos Santos that the US planned to keep up the ongoing sanctions on UNITA rebels but urged a peaceful solution to the war in Angola, the state news agency ANGOP reported. President Bush said in a letter dated last week that his administration also intended to strengthen ties with Angola pending progress in political and economic reforms.

The letter was in response to another written by dos Santos after the US president took office in January this year. Bush reportedly wrote that his foreign policy team was reviewing the activities of the bilateral commission after earlier reports that the Bush administration planned to terminate several bilateral commissions set up during the Clinton years.

Bush added that his foreign policy team would soon recommend the best method to deepen and instutionalise the bilateral collaboration in key issues of mutual concern including common efforts to put an end to the war in the democratic republic of Congo (DRC). “My administration will continue to support the sanctions of the UN Security Council on UNITA “, said Bush as he appealed for a peaceful solution to end the conflict in Angola for the total development of the country.