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“There can be no walls between CPLP countries” – President Nyusi in Portugal
2:56 CAT | 03 Jul 2019
All Photos: presidencia.pt
The President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, said yesterday in Lisbon that there could be no walls between Portuguese-speaking countries, and pledged to work to unlock the theme of mobility in the CPLP.
“There can be no walls, especially walls among us, the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries,” Filipe Nyusi said.
The Mozambican head of state, speaking on Tuesday at the Palácio de Belém in Lisbon after a meeting with his Portuguese counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, made a commitment to work for the mobility of people in the Portuguese-speaking community.
Earlier, President de Sousa also insisted that mobility was a priority within in the framework of the CPLP.
“We have to do our job to make it there [mobility] and, as far as President Marcelo and myself are concerned, we will make it happen,” Nyusi added.
President Nyusi recognised, however, that free movement within the Lusophone community was also dependent on international rules.
“The problem will be Portugal, but we’ll see how [that works out]. Portugal is part of the European Union, which has its own rules,” Nyusi said.
The Mozambican president stressed that Mozambicans and Angolans could travel freely between the two countries, showing that “people cannot be closed [off]”.
“We will receive the President of Cape Verde [and acting president of the CPLP] at the end of the month and this will be one of the topics we address. We want to open the goalposts, because while we are in a box it is very difficult to know what is going on in the world,” he said.
The model of freedom of movement in the CPLP proposed by Cape Verde, and supported by Portugal, provides that each country can choose the type of mobility that it intends to implement, and with which country or group of countries among the nine country members, as well as the timetable for its adoption.
The proposal is to be analysed at the next meeting of CPLP foreign ministers, scheduled for July 19, in Mindelo, Cape Verde.
Filipe Nyusi, who started a four-day state visit to Portugal on Tuesday, spoke after a meeting with his Portuguese counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
In a statement without any subsequent questions, the Mozambican head of state highlighted the “solid trajectory” of political and economic relations between the two countries and reaffirmed his commitment to peace in Mozambique.
Nyusi also delivered to his Portuguese counterpart and to Portugal “a message” from Ossufo Momade, president of Renamo, stating that the largest opposition party in Mozambique was committed to peace and that the consensus reached would continue tio be implemented within the stipulated guidelines.
The first day of the Mozambican head of state’s visit to Lisbon ended with an official dinner at Palácio da Ajuda.
On Wednesday, the Mozambican president and Prime Minister of Portugal António Costa take part in the opening of the Portugal-Mozambique Business Forum at the Intercontinental Hotel in Lisbon. Several agreements between the two countries were signed later, at the Foz Palace.
Filipe Nyusi, accompanied by a delegation of ministers, deputies and businesspeople, will participate with Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in the EurAfrican Forum, organised by the Diaspora Council in Cascais, “in a panel dedicated to the theme of reconstruction, in the context of the Cyclone Idai and Kenneth catastrophe.”
The state visit ends on Friday in Viseu.
Source: Lusa
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