Chapo Undertakes Two-Nation European Tour
Mozambican President Daniel Chapo led a high-level delegation on a two-nation European tour with Lisbon and Rome on his itinerary. From 8 to 9 December 2025, Chapo was in Portugal, then from 9 to 11 December, he was in Italy.
In Portugal, President Chapo met with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro and attended the 6th Portugal-Mozambique Economic Forum. Portugal accorded a EUR 500 million line of credit aimed at boosting the economy and private sector in Mozambique. Under the Program for Strategic Cooperation 2027-2031, 22 legal instruments were signed, covering infrastructure, #digitalization, tourism, agriculture, and culture, among others.
Portugal accorded a line of credit worth EUR 500 million to Mozambique. Additionally, Portugal will set up a Training Hotel in Mozambique to provide on-the-job professional development to workers in the hospitality sector and promote tourism between the two countries.
In Italy, President Chapo met with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Italian firm ENI has been involved in the natural gas sector since 2011 and has been operating the Coral South floating LNG plant since 2022. A second floating LNG plant at Coral North is on the drawing board as part of the expansion plan. Thanks to the huge investments in the hydrocarbon sector, Italy is the top source of #FDI into Mozambique.
Both sides reiterated their commitments to the World Bank’s (WB) Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation (#ASCENT) program. In line with the UN #SDG7, Mozambique would like to leverage its natural gas resources to contribute to affordable and clenar energy by 2030.
Chapo stands at 2 meters while Meloni is 1.58 meters, causing framing challenges for some photographers. The significant difference became the talk of the town for a while, with the internet abuzz with photographs of the two leaders.
Another flagship bilateral cooperation project is the Manica Agro-Food Center, under the #MatteiPlan, since Mozambique is keen to diversify from oil and gas. Both sides signed five cooperation agreements in the fields of justice, civil protection, digitalization, and socio-economic development.