“The CPLP owes a lot to José Sarney”, Luís Faro Ramos told Lusa, at the Portuguese embassy in Brasília, on the sidelines of the Conexão Brasília Museu Aberto 2024 event, in which the ambassadors of Angola and Guinea-Bissau in Brazil were also present.
“José Sarney is at the origin of the creation of the CPLP with that meeting of heads of state from the CPLP countries”, recalled the diplomat.
In 1989, Sarney received, in São Luís, capital of the state of Maranhão, the heads of state of Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe and Cape Verde, as well as representation from Angola, in what would become the first stone for the founding of the CPLP.
The creation of the community was made official in 1996, in Lisbon.
“We began a process of multilateral cooperation, expanding the ties of traditional bilateral agreements, which did not express the dimension of what the Portuguese language represents as a factor of culture and development”, recalled, in 2005, José Sarney, in statements to Agência Senado do Brazil.
The 93-year-old former president cannot be physically present at the Portuguese embassy in Brasília, due to a “health impediment”, as he explained in a letter sent and read by the Portuguese ambassador during the ceremony.
Regarding the ambition of the Portuguese language to become an official language of the UN, Luís Faro Ramos highlighted in his tribute speech that “it was him [Sarney] in the creative moment that made this dream possible”.
The Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, guaranteed that he would give instructions to the Minister of Foreign Affairs to "pursue this matter in New York”, headquarters of the United Nations, the Portuguese ambassador to Brazil told Lusa at the beginning of the year .
The topic was again addressed during the meeting of the heads of diplomacy of the G20, chaired by Brazil, and which invited Portugal, Angola and the CPLP itself to participate in meetings throughout 2024.
During the meetings, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said, according to the Portuguese ambassador, “that it was a priority of Brazilian foreign policy” to make efforts to understand what would be necessary for Portuguese to become an official language of the UN. , “on a day not too far away”.
An ambition that was also shared in statements to Lusa, in Rio de Janeiro, where the heads of the 20 largest economies in the world met, by the executive secretary of the CPLP.
Asked whether the Brazilian presidency could help the Portuguese language become official at the United Nations, Zacarias da Costa recalled that "Portuguese is currently the official or working language in more than 30 international organizations".
"In the case of the United Nations, for this to happen, in addition to concerted diplomatic action, joint financial investment will also be necessary," he said.
