Diplomatic Briefing
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Newsline: East Timor to open embassy in Angola
East Timor plans soon to open an embassy in Angola as part of its efforts to boost ties between the two countries, the country’s business attaché. Elda Ferreira said in Luanda. The diplomat told Angolan news agency Angop that opening the embassy would help to “reinstate privileged historical relations,” between the two countries,,” and noted that the Timorese government had accepted that Angola be included in the delegation of observers of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) that would accompany East Timor’s presidential elections on 17 March. Ferreira said that the Angolan embassy may also be opened in Dili after the legislative elections in East Timor, in June. In response to Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor Angola allowed Timor to open a diplomatic office in Luanda and raised the category of the East Timor Liberation Front’s (Fretilin) representative office to an embassy, whose ambassador was Roque Rodrigues, from 1975 to 1999. The embassy closed in 1999 due to financial difficulties.
http://www.macauhub.com.mo/en/2012/02/27/east-timor-to-open-embassy-in-angola/
Consular affairs: Angola fails to ease visa rules
Angola has spent an estimated $1 billion to stage this month’s African Nations Cup, but the former Portuguese colony appears to be doing little to help foreign visitors get in. Angola has not eased its byzantine visa regulations for would-be Nations Cup visitors. Accredited journalists are among those who have missed out because the promised Letter of Invitation from the organising committee — necessary to get the treasured visa — was either sent too late or went to the embassy in the wrong country. As for visiting fans, they may as well forget it unless they started planning a long time ago. Normal visa applications can take three months to process, even if the applicant manages to satisfy all criteria (and it’s not always clear what they are). One embassy official in Berne, Switzerland, demanded a swine flu vaccination. When told that previous host nations had been more accommodating, she said proudly: “But this is Angola.” Fans from Zambia are lucky, though – they are the only ones of the 15 visiting teams who do not need visas.
