CPLP: Summit signs mobility agreement, investment in economy

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CPLP: Summit signs mobility agreement, investment in economy

7:53 CAT | 16 Jul 2021

Image: Plataforma Media

The 13th Conference of heads of state and government of the CPLP, due to be held on Saturday in Luanda, will be marked by the signing of the Agreement on Mobility and Angola’s focus on economic cooperation.

At Angola’s request, this summit of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP), which was due to take place in 2020, was postponed to July 2021, due to the pandemic, with the outgoing Cabo Verdean presidency having agreed to extend its two-year mandate, for another year.

The draft agreement on mobility establishes a “framework for cooperation” among all member states in a “flexible and variable” manner and, in practice, covers all citizens.

Member states are offered a range of solutions enabling them to take on “mobility commitments in a progressive manner with differentiated levels of integration”, taking account of their own internal specificities in their political, social and administrative dimensions.

In this context, they have the “freedom (…) in the choice of the mobility modalities, of the categories of persons covered”, as well as of the countries of the community with which they wish to establish partnerships, according to the proposal to which Lusa had access.

The issue of facilitating movement has been debated in the CPLP for about two decades but had a greater impetus with a more concrete proposal presented by Portugal at the Brasilia summit in 2016, and has become the priority of the rotating presidency of the organisation of Cabo Verde in the last three years.

Another of the dominant issues will be strengthening economic cooperation, which Angola intends to highlight in its presidency, which is now beginning and whose motto will be “Strengthen and Promote Economic and Business Cooperation in times of pandemic, favouring sustainable development in the CPLP member states.”

At this summit, it is also expected that the heads of state and government will agree on support for Mozambique to face violence in Cabo Delgado province.

Another issue that should be assessed is Equatorial Guinea’s progress regarding its commitments when it became a member of the organisation in 2014, namely the abolition of the death penalty.

So far, the presidents of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Cabo Verde, Jorge Carlos Fonseca, Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, and Sao Tome and Principe, Evaristo Carvalho, as well as the host, João Lourenço, have confirmed they will attend.

Vice President Hamilton Mourão will represent Brazil, and the heads of government have confirmed the presence of António Costa (Portugal), Ulisses Correia e Silva (Cabo Verde), Nuno Nabiam (Guinea-Bissau), Jorge Bom Jesus (Sao Tome and Principe.

The heads of diplomacy of the nine member states are expected to attend, although the delegations from Mozambique and Equatorial Guinea have not yet been disclosed.

On Friday, the Council of Ministers will meet to approve proposals to be submitted to the heads of State and Government.

On the same day, a gala dinner will be held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the CPLP, which is officially marked on Saturday, 17 July.

At the opening session of the summit on Saturday, the Angolan and Cabo Verdean heads of state are due to speak, as well as the president of the CPLP Parliamentary Assembly, Guinean Cipriano Cassamá, the president of Namibia, Hage Gottfried Geinbob, representing the associated observer countries of the organisation, and François Lounecény Fall, special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, representing international organisations.

After João Lourenço was sworn in as pro tempore president of the CPLP for the 2021-2023 biennium, the agenda was approved. The report of outgoing executive secretary Francisco Ribeiro Telles was presented.

Next, the head of Angolan diplomacy, Téte António, will present Angola’s priorities for the organisation’s presidency and the new executive secretary, Zacarias Albano da Costa, former foreign minister Timor-Leste, will be elected.

After a working lunch of the organisation’s leaders, the heads of diplomacy of the nine member states are expected to sign the Agreement on Mobility.

The ceremony will be followed by delivering the “José Aparecido de Oliveira” award, the CPLP award, to this year’s winner, the Portuguese President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the inauguration of Zacarias da Costa.

Source: Lusa