Increasing cooperation in education, health and defence will be the main focus of the visit to the African country. Portugal “can always be a bridge between Africa and the European Union,” says Nuno Sampaio.
The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Nuno Sampaio, expressed this Tuesday, in Bissau, the availability of the Portuguese Government to work with Guinea-Bissau to strengthen bilateral relations.
The government official arrived in Bissau this Tuesday for a three-day visit, which began with a courtesy meeting with the Guinean president, Umaro Sissoco Embaló.
The Secretary of State considered it “very significant” that the Head of State received him, understanding this gesture as revealing of “the strong relations between Guinea-Bissau and Portugal”, based “on a great mutual respect between the two countries“.
Nuno Sampaio, who spoke to reporters at the end of the meeting at the Presidential Palace, said that with this visit he intends to convey that “the Portuguese Government is available to work together with the Government of Guinea-Bissau.”
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This work aims to further strengthen cooperation in several areas that have yielded results with projects on the ground, particularly in the areas of health, education, defence or sovereign bodies such as the judiciary, he said.
The Portuguese Secretary of State affirmed that Guinea-Bissau is a partner in a space that Portugal “values greatly”, that of Lusophony, and it is expected that the rotating presidency of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) will be secured next anus. the Guinean State.
“But Portugal is also a member of the European Union and There can always be a bridge between Africa and the European Union. and, in particular, between Guinea-Bissau, being active to attract more projects,” he added.
The official added that “Portugal is very committed to the CPLP mobility agreement,” specifically “that this agreement can function in consular terms even more adequately, so that mobility within the CPLP becomes a reality.”
During the three days of the visit, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs is scheduled to meet with several members of the Government of Guinea-Bissau, including the Prime Minister, Rui de Barros.
Nuno Sampaio will also visit Portuguese cooperation organizations and projects, in particular the land where the Portuguese school designed several years ago for the country will be built, where Creole is the most spoken language among the population.
The Portuguese language is, for the Secretary of State, “a strategic element of cooperation” between Portugal and Guinea-Bissau, present in other ongoing projects, with the Portuguese school still being “an embryonic project,” he noted.
According to him, this “is a very important project for the consolidation of both the development of the Portuguese language and cultural relations between Portugal and Guinea-Bissau.”
“The Portuguese State is very committed so that this Portuguese school can become a reality here in Guinea-Bissau,” he stated.
Source: Observadora
