Ford approves business links with Angola

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34084, 23 February 1976, Page 13

Ford approves business links with Angola

(N.Z. Press Assn—Copyright) WASHINGTON, February 22.

The Ford Administration has given its approval to Gulf Oil and Boeing to resume normal business transactions with the Sovietbacked regime in Angola, according to State Department officials.

These actions mark an important reversal and could be read as the first steps toward establishing diplomatic relations with the Government established by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (M.P.L.A.) State Department officials tended to downplay this possibility, although one said: “The only guy who can say is in Latin America,” in reference to the United States Secretary of State (Dr Henry Kissinger). The officials said the only point decided is that the administration will not recognise . the M.P.L.A. before Zaire and Zambia — the two nations that initially urged United States involvement in Angola.

Gulf holds the concession to operate the oil fields in Cabinda, an Angolan province bordering Zaire. This concession has been the largest source of revenue for Angola, bringing in about ssoom annually. Two Boeing 737 aircraft will be released for delivery to the regime on Tuesday. At the end of November, the State Department revoked the export licence for the

planes “on the basis of national security.” At that time, a State Department spokesman explained that the decision was made on the assumption that the planes would be used for military purposes. Tag, the Angolan airline that purchased the aircraft, had given a guarantee that the planes would be used commercially. The two aircraft were paid for in advance and were to have been delivered in January and February.