"The national and also regional agendas of the President of Timor-Leste and the Prime Minister, who also took office a short time ago, do not allow their presence at the next summit of Heads of State and Government in São Tomé and Príncipe", said Zacarias da Costa.
Therefore, José Ramos Horta appointed the president of the national parliament, Maria Fernanda Lay, to represent the country, added the executive secretary of the organization, also Timorese and who will take office for a second term in office at the next summit.
Zacarias da Costa was speaking to Lusa at the end of the meeting of the Permanent Consultation Committee of the CPLP (the usual monthly meeting of the ambassadors of the nine Member States in Lisbon), when there are a few days left for the next Summit of Heads of State and Government.
But he stressed that at this moment “most heads of state have already confirmed” their presence at the high-level meeting.
These are the cases of the presidents of Brazil, Lula da Silva, of Angola, João Lourenço, of Cape Verde, José Maria Neves, Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the host of the event, of São Tomé and Príncipe, Carlos Vila Nova, said .
“Almost all presidents have already confirmed, with the exception of Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau (...) which is due to the fact that the country's prime minister took office only a few days ago and they are still waiting for the formation of the new government, what will surely happen before the summit”, stressed the executive secretary.
As for Equatorial Guinea, Zacarias da Costa also said that he does not have confirmation of the presence of that country's head of state, but believes that, as "he is right there at the door", in an allusion to the proximity to São Tomé, President Teodoro Obiang will only will not go “for health reasons”.
Before Zacarias da Costa, the ambassador of the Timor-Leste Diplomatic Mission to the CPLP in Lisbon, Marina Ribeiro Alkatiri, who also participated in the committee meeting, had already said that President José Ramos Horta had appointed the president of parliament to replace him in the summit and added that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Timor-Leste will also be at the summit.
This summit, which takes place every two years, takes place on the 27th of August in São Tomé and Príncipe, with the country hosting the summit being the one that assumes the rotating presidency of the organization for two years.
The President and Prime Minister of Cape Verde confirmed on Thursday that they would participate in the XIV CPLP Summit through the Cape Verdean Minister for Communities, in the Sao Tome capital.
“I have no doubts that the best organization is being done”, said Jorge Santos, after a meeting with the Prime Minister of São Tomé, adding that the President, José Maria Neves, and Prime Minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva, “there is no to feel at home and that is what will happen with Angola, with Portugal, with Brazil, with everyone”.
“There is great expectation with this summit of CPLP Heads of State here in São Tomé because it is the summit in which we are going to define the future”, said Jorge Santos, referring that after the advances in the issues of mobility and economic consolidation, it is necessary to define “how to consolidate this into concrete actions, because the world is full of discourse”.
The Cape Verdean official defended that concrete actions are needed to make the economy and commerce work so that the CPLP is “above all a community of people”.
Last week, the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe called for the union of São Tomé and Príncipe to welcome the participants of the XIV Summit of the CPLP.
The head of state, Carlos Vila Nova, considered that the theme "Youth and Sustainability", which the country chose for its presidency of the CPLP, refers "to a deep reflection in view of the need to reconcile the country's development with the preservation of the environment” and the consequent improvement in the quality of life of the populations.
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.
