"The summit will be in São Tomé, the Government of São Tomé will formalize this decision, this will, in the coming days", said Zacarias da Costa, recalling that the Prime Minister of São Tomé, Patrice Trovoada, had a meeting in Luanda with the head of state, João Lourenço, also acting president of the CPLP, as well as with the president of the Council of Ministers in exercise of the organization, the minister of Foreign Affairs, Téte António, on 23 December 2022.
At that meeting, according to Zacarias da Costa, the issue of the CPLP summit was discussed.
The executive secretary of the CPLP, who is currently in Brasília, where he attended, on Sunday, Lula da Silva's inauguration as President of Brazil, added that the confirmation of the holding of the next summit in São Tomé was communicated to him, in the Brazilian capital, by the Sao Tome Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alberto Pereira.
Zacarias da Costa added that he had met with that political official to discuss "the objectives and preparation" of the summit, which will begin in the next few days.
"We will start from the next few days until the summit, in order to guarantee that it happens, as usual, in July, and that it will mark the beginning of the São Tomé presidency" of the organization, he stressed.
Asked about the topics of the summit, the executive secretary did not provide further details, arguing that he will now start his preparation.
"The most important thing is the commitment of the Government of São Tomé, which assumed the will to assume the presidency of the CPLP for the biennium 2023-2025", he stressed.
The holding of this year's summit had remained to be decided at the conference of Heads of State and Government in July 2021, in Luanda, when the Portuguese President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, recalled that São Tomé and Príncipe was going through an electoral period at that time ( presidential elections), and argued that Member States should wait for the end of this process to determine which country would host the 2023 summit and the consequent presidency of the CPLP. Guinea-Bissau also expressed willingness to host the summit.
Taking advantage of the presence of several Portuguese-speaking heads of state and government in Brasilia, for Lula da Silva's inauguration, Zacarias da Costa met with the presidents of Portugal, Angola, João Lourenço, and Timor-Leste, José Ramos Horta.
The CPLP executive secretary said he had had "a long conversation" with the President of Angola and with the Angolan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Téte António.
"We meet regularly wherever possible, obviously to monitor the work of the presidency and ensure that the objectives outlined in the two years of the Angolan presidency are fulfilled", he referred.
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.
