Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed his commitment to invigorate the once good and productive relations between Brazil and Africa which were developed during his first term in the 2000s.
"Now, with my return to the Presidency, we want to recover the good and fruitful relationship that Brazil had with the African continent," said the president.
Lula announced his plans to visit "several" African countries in the coming year, stressing that Brazil has potential to assist Africa in many aspects.
Such fields, as the president noted, include education, industry and agriculture.
The Brazilian leader added that the country intends to open embassies in underrepresented countries in the region.
For his part, the president of Cape Verde indicated that Brazil is "returning to the world" and and that Lula had brought "greatness" to Brazil's global positioning.
"The most important thing is Brazil's return to the world. We have seen that President Lula da Silva has brought this greatness to Brazil and has placed itself in the world at the height of the challenges that the world faces at that moment," Maria Neves noted.
In his first term as president of the largest country in South America (2003-2011), Lula presided over the first Africa-South America Summit, held in Abuja, Nigeria in 2007, which was a diplomatic conference between the leaders of countries in both continents.