The 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 Language Countries (CPLP)", in view of the recent agreements between member states of the collective and Russia, in particular São Tomé and Príncipe.

"When the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation began, there were votes at the United Nations. In some of the votes, the CPLP was divided, and it was very divided", recalled the Head of State, pointing out that, initially, more countries supported Moscow's position than Kyiv's.

However, Marcelo stressed that this framework "has been changing over time, and Portugal has had a role to play in this change".

"Now, as in the future, Portugal will play the role that it understands to be competitive on an equal footing with the other members of the CPLP, in order to safeguard the unity of the CPLP", he said.

Earlier, the official pointed out that "Europe is always very, very attentive to what is happening in Africa", particularly Portugal.

"Let's not forget that we have national forces deployed with various missions, in various Portuguese-speaking or non-Portuguese-speaking states, to guarantee stability, security, and 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 cooperation between Europe and Africa", he pointed out.

And he considered: "Everything that concerns Africa, as with the world in general, is of interest to Europe."

In a comment requested by Lusa, regarding the signing of a technical military 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, as with Guinea-Bissau and other Portuguese-speaking countries".

"Defense and security are pillars of this bilateral cooperation that is maintained and will be intensified, with particular emphasis on maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea, in which both Portugal and the European Union have been providing concrete support, negotiated with the countries in the region, to deal with the challenges that they currently face", states the note from the Portuguese MFA.

And it added that, as a rule, the CPLP countries do not make "public statements on 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 implemented on May 5, providing for training, use of weapons and military equipment and visits by 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 scheduled a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

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