The Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, João Gomes Cravinho, sees the next meeting of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), in Luanda, as an opportunity to share, “in a climate of trust”, different points of view on the war in Ukraine.
In statements to Lusa, the Minister of Foreign Affairs (MNE) expressed positive expectations for the XXVII Ordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the CPLP: “It will be very useful because I will be able to explain the Portuguese vision and I will have the opportunity to listen, from the hand of my colleagues, in a climate of trust, what are their ways of seeing this situation?
João Gomes Cravinho recalls that it will not be adopted “nor was it ever proposed” to adopt “a resolution”, but confirmed that will exchange views with their Portuguese-speaking counterparts on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, highlighting “its consequences in terms of food security”, since “obviously that is something that worries everyone”.
For the minister, Portugal is not “an isolated voice”, referring to the fact that it is enough to look at “the positions adopted by Timor-Leste and São Tomé” and Príncipe, to see “an absolute convergence”.
In relation to other countries, Gomes Cravinho admitted that there are “different perspectives, but the CPLP is a community in which there is a lot of trust, closeness and I would even say intimacy between the parties and, as in families, differences of opinion are allowed. , without endangering the essence of the relationship.”
The President of the Russian Federation Council (Senate), Valentina Matvienko, is in Mozambique at the invitation of the President of the Assembly of the Republic of Mozambique, Esperança Bias, after having signed, on Tuesday, a cooperation agreement between the two parliaments, focusing on the exchange of experiences and the exchange of information.
After receiving the third figure from the Russian state, the president of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, praised Moscow for “making an effort to avoid the worst”, since it could “end the war in two or three days, but that would imply enormous [perdas de] it lives”.
In addition, Mozambique was one of the 38 countries that abstained in the United Nations General Assembly votewhere an overwhelming majority approved a resolution blaming Russia for the humanitarian crisis generated by the war in Ukraine.
The Mozambican Liberation Front (Frelimo, the party in power since independence) was an ally of Moscow during the time of the former USSR, from which it received military support in the fight against Portuguese colonialism and economic aid after independence in 1975 .
The XXVII Ordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the CPLP will take place on Friday, in Luanda, at the Hotel Epic Sana.
In the general debate, the EMN and Foreign Relations of the Member States will intervene on the topic “Economic Cooperation in the CPLP”, proposed by Angola, which assumed the presidency of the organization after the XIII Conference of Heads of State and Government, held in July 2021.
João Gomes Cravinho said that “there will be a survey of what are the possible instruments, what works and what works worse” and How can we “work better on the economic front”?and a meeting of “national agencies dedicated to the promotion of foreign trade” is also expected, in the Portuguese case “AICEP, to see how they can better interact”.
Prior to the meeting of CPLP ministers, this Thursday the 253rd Meeting of the Permanent Consultative Committee of the Portuguese-speaking organization will take place.
Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste are the nine member states of the CPLP.
Source: Observadora
