O President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, pointed out, this Thursday, that Portugal will continue to act in order to “safeguard the unity of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP)”, given the recent agreements between member states of the collective and Russia, in particular São Tomé and Príncipe.
“When the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine began, there were votes at the United Nations. In some of the votes, the CPLP was divided, and it was divided a lot”, recalled the head of state, pointing out that, initially, more countries supported Moscow’s position than Kyiv’s.
However, Marcelo highlighted that this situation “was changing over time, and in this change Portugal had a role to play”.
“Now, as in the future, Portugal will play the role it understands, competing on parity of positions with the other members of the CPLP, to safeguard the unity of the CPLP,” he said.
The media asked the President of the Republic if he is concerned about a CPLP member state having signed a military cooperation agreement with Russia.
“I don’t know about this agreement, I think it was signed recently, but I’m not yet aware of it”, replied Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. “I’ll want to meet you,” he added.
Previously, the official pointed out that “Europe is always very, very attentive to what is happening in Africa”, particularly Portugal.
“Let us not forget that we have national forces deployed with various missions, in several Portuguese-speaking states or not, to guarantee stability, security, humanitarian conditions, without which it is very, very difficult to have what we all want, which is a great future for African countries and a great future for collaboration between Europe and Africa”, he pointed out.
And he considered: “Everything that concerns Africa, as well as the world in general, is of interest to Europe.”
In a comment requested by Lusa, regarding the signing of a military technical agreement between São Tomé and Príncipe and Russia, at the end of April, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled that “Portugal has had multifaceted, intense and sustained cooperation with São Tomé and Príncipe for decades. Tomé and Príncipe, as with Guinea-Bissau and other Portuguese-speaking countries”.
“Defense and security are pillars of this bilateral cooperation that continues and will intensify, with particular emphasis on maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea, in which both Portugal and the European Union have advanced with concrete support, negotiated with countries in the region, to deal with the challenges they currently face”, says the note from the Portuguese MNE.
And he added that, as a rule, CPLP countries do not make “public statements about the foreign policy acts of each of their member states”.
The agreement between São Tomé and Príncipe and Russia was, according to the official Russian news agency Sputnik, signed in Saint Petersburg on April 24 and began to be applied on May 5, providing for training, use of weapons and military equipment and visits of Russian planes, warships and vessels to the archipelago.
The announcement of the signing of this agreement coincides with the visit that the Guinean President, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, is making to Russia, having planned a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
[Notícia atualizada às 16h23]
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