Asked by the Lusa agency about the statements by the São Tomé president, who said last month that the country "has not yet decided" whether to assume the rotating presidency of the CPLP, as it does not have "at this moment, internal conditions" that allow it to assume the mission, Zacarias da Costa said that the decision will be announced "soon".
"The secretariat just has to wait for the decision of a country [São Tomé and Príncipe] that is sovereign, a country that is a founding and full member of an organization like the CPLP. I believe that soon we will have good news", said Zacarias da Costa, at the end of a meeting with the Sao Tome prime minister, Jorge Bom Jesus.
The CPLP executive secretary stressed that assuming the presidency of the organization in 2023 "is an internal decision of São Tomé and Príncipe", ensuring that the country's decision will be respected.
"This is a decision that is the exclusive competence of the Heads of State and Government, naturally, if São Tomé decides, and it is within their right. But we also hope that this will be done with respect, naturally, for the institutions of this country", he said. Zacharias Costa.
In an interview with Lusa last month, Sao Tome's President Carlos Vila Nova highlighted that the presidency of the CPLP is a mission "of scale, of breadth", which implies "coordinating the destinies of several countries gathered in a community".
"At the moment, the internal conditions of my country do not allow it", he considered, noting that the remaining member countries of the CPLP have already guaranteed that they would provide "total collaboration".
"It is an issue that in due course we will make the decision that suits the community - it is true, but above all - São Tomé and Príncipe, because we do not want to assume a presidency that we will not be able to fully exercise or assume completely. this challenge for the good of all", he said.
Vila Nova sent a decision to "as soon as possible".
At the conference of heads of state and government of the CPLP, held in July in Luanda, the decision on the next presidency of the CPLP was postponed, with the argument that presidential elections were underway in São Tomé and Príncipe.
In September, after an informal meeting of the heads of diplomacy of the CPLP Member States, the Minister of Foreign Affairs (MNE) of Portugal, Augusto Santos Silva, declared as "good news" the "agreement" that was reached during a meeting informal meeting of CPLP ministers, in New York, that the presidency of the Portuguese-speaking organization will be in charge of São Tomé and Príncipe, after the current mandate of Angola.
Guinea-Bissau has also expressed interest in taking office in 2023.
The CPLP is made up of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste.
