Thursday on the sidelines of his participation in the 69th annual session of the General Assembly President Michel Martelly had two bilateral meetings with representatives of the African continent.

As part of the approximation of Haiti with Africa and the strengthening of South-South cooperation, initiated by the Government of Haiti, the Head of State met in the offices of the Permanent Mission of Côte d'Ivoire to the United Nations, with the President of theRepublic of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara. The two heads of state discussed inter alia of strengthening of cooperation between Haiti and the Ivory Coast in their diplomatic representation. Given hat this state is the largest exporter of cocoa in the world, with 40% of production and a major provider of electricity to neighboring countries in the sub-region in West Africa, the two men also explored the possibility of a collaboration agreement in areas such as education, agriculture and energy. President Martelly has officially invited the Ivorian president to visit Haiti.

President Alassane Ouattara, was very interested by the Universal Schooling Program Free and Compulsory (PSUGO) set up by the Administration Martelly and said he was ready to be inspired by it and also invited the President Martelly to make a State visit to Côte d'Ivoire.

Following this meeting the President Martelly declared "[...] it was an honor to have been received by President Ouattara. We are an extension of Africa, the children of Africa in the Caribbean, past governments in Haiti have failed to warm up the relationship, and it is my mission to make sure that we are closer to Africa [...] we agreed to work on the important issues, whether agricultural issues, to see how Haiti could benefit from the expertise of our brothers from Ivory Coast and in education that is important to us and why not see our brothers return to Haiti to participate with us in the construction of the Haitian Nation, which for African means a lot. Haiti has led a fight that goes beyond the interests of Haiti, which goes even beyond the interests of the nation, since it is a movement that redefined the word Liberty, when we took our independence."

At its second bilateral meeting, the Head of State met with the Vice-President of the Republic of Angola, Manuel Vicente, who represented President José Eduardo dos Santos, held by state affairs. They discussed various matters of mutual interest and the President Martelly stated that it had planned with Manuel Vicente, the signing of a cooperation agreement between the two nations, in the mining and energy sectors, Angola being the third oil producer in Africa.

HL/ TB/ HaitiLibre