"This is a relay exercise. We run, [but] we are not going to leave the flame to São Tomé and Príncipe alone, because also in this meeting we address the issue of the 'troika', the way in which the organization must ensure that the organization that succeeds the other can continue to support the one who presides and who will come starts to see in a little more depth what happens in the organization", said Téte António, after a ceremony in the São Tomé capital.
According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the event also served to review what was the Angolan presidency, which had the theme "Building and strengthening a common and sustainable future", and which will formally end on 27 August, during the summit in São Tomé.
"We insisted on the economic aspects that the organization must have, we introduced the economic pillar, the department of economic affairs within the secretariat, we also worked on revising the status of associated observers, and there is a process of internal regulations that has been started and will certainly be continued by São Tomé and Príncipe", recalled the head of Angolan diplomacy.
The Sao Tome Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alberto Pereira, underlined that the preparation activities for the summit and the presidency of the CPLP do not begin or end on the day of the meeting of the Heads of State and Government.
"The CPLP is an evolutionary organization, the dossiers may start in a presidency and continue for another presidency. Therefore, the summit will be the milestone where there will be the official passage from one State to another", he said.
"We were aware of several dossiers, many of which were initiated by the Angolan Presidency, and as it could not be otherwise, they will continue with the Sao Tome presidency.
The ceremony for the gradual transfer of the presidency of Angola takes place about a month before São Tomé and Príncipe hosts the XIV Conference of Heads of State and Government of the CPLP.
São Tomé and Príncipe succeeds Angola in the rotating presidency of the organization, for a period of two years, with "Youth and Sustainability" being the theme chosen by the Portuguese-speaking country for the biennium from 2023 to 2025.
Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste are the nine Member States of the Portuguese-speaking organisation.
Angolan ambassadors Maria Cuandina Tchilepa de Carvalho, Europe director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Francisco Oliveira Encoge, representative of the permanent mission of Angola to the CPLP in Lisbon, also participated in the ceremony in the Sao Tome capital.
