Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

I am particularly pleased to have joined you here, today, to share among friends the emotion of opening our new home.

Allow me to start by addressing a special greeting to the Vice President of the Republic of Angola, who has honoured us with his presence, and congratulate him on the drive Angola has placed in its mandate at the head of CPLP’a destinies.

I equally wish, on this occasion, to publicly testify my recognition, as President of the Republic and as a citizen of CPLP, for the efforts of all who have made this day possible. An immediate word of special appreciation to the Angolan Presidency, who considered this objective as one of its priorities, to the Executive Secretary, whose actions have been determining in demonstrating that CPLP deserved these new premises, and to the Portuguese Government that, recognizing the importance of this issue, knew how to put an end to an uncertain situation that had for so long been protracted, and find a solution that dignifies our Community.

Located in Lisbon, these quarters bring with them the memory of the departure point of another adventure, which brought us centuries of shared history, and is simultaneously inserted in the contemporary reality of a city where spoken Portuguese is daily enriched with the contribution of the multiple ways of life that identify its constituent peoples and nations.

Spoken Portuguese is, prior to anything else, an essence that is present in the simplicity with which we establish, unsurprisingly, that none of us are foreigners to each other and that we have never felt or will ever feel as foreigners in each other’s countries.

CPLP reflects the vision of those who were able to detect the enormous strategic potential of that feeling in today’s world. That was the case, from the very beginning, of Ambassador José Aparecido de Oliveira, whose memory all will understand I want to especially recollect on this day. This would be, for him, undoubtedly a moment of great joy. But equally, of very demanding words with respect to the future.

In effect, the progress we have reached deserves being highlighted. In spite of its youth, our Community is today a central axis of the external policies of the States it comprises, a valuable component of the role that each of our countries plays in the regional and international context in which they belong. It is also an extremely important instrument of cooperation and political entente, in fields that become wider each day and involve an ever growing number of sectors in our societies. It is, lastly, a factor of the deepening of the relations amongst our Peoples, promoting the feeling of belonging to a common area, based on language and on the code of values that we share.

In short, we were able to build a common undertaking, internationally recognized and respected, as is proven by the growing number of States and regional and international Organizations that closely watch it or that wish, in some form or another, to become associated with CPLP.

This recognition allows us to face the future with confidence and ambition. Because this is how we must view these premises: as the sign of the much we have jointly carried out, but also of a shared and ambitious stake in the future.
And this is the future I want to talk about.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

Notwithstanding our differences, we believe in the common principles that we have elected as structural values of our Community, and that guide us in our joint actions: defence of freedom, democracy, Human Rights and the economic and social development of our peoples.

These were the values that prompted, amongst other actions, the support that CPLP has provided, and continues doing so, to the consolidation of democratic regimes in some of our sister countries.

These were the values, let us not forget it, that gained for CPLP the respect and credibility that it enjoys in the international stage.

It is thus fundamental that we continue making clear, now and in the future, that these are the values that shall determine our decisions and our initiatives.

Another aspect which we must growingly regard is the involvement of the civil society of each of our countries in CPLP’s life.

It is true that much has been done in this sense, but we must go further: enlarging the fields of cooperation, attracting a greater diversity of sectors of society to our Community’s initiatives, disseminating, more often and better, what we are and accomplish, but also what we intend to be and to achieve.

In short, CPLP has to take to the street and open itself up to the contributions of its citizens, starting with, from the very beginning, with the younger people, so that they feel it is something that belongs to them, with which they can feel identified as a real added value in their lives.

Proceeding with these objectives is not an exclusive task for the Secretariat, as determined and as driven as it may be. It is something that calls upon all of us, which calls upon each of our countries.

Political entente, amongst us and in the midst of the international organizations to which we belong, is another area where important progress has been achieved.

The articulate and consistent way in which CPLP presented itself in Portugal’s election as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and in the choice of the new FAO Director General were eloquent examples of what I have just stated, without any doubts remaining that CPLP is today a strength that must be recognized in decisions of this nature.

However, we can and must go further. These successes must be a stimulus in order that we extend the concerted positions amongst us to the many challenges that we are facing in today’s world. The greater that concert is evident in the eyes of our international partners, the greater will be the weight of each of our countries.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

The promotion of our language, pillar of our Community, and its international assertion are priority objectives, recognized as such by all of us, at the highest level.

Our language is, already today, the sixth most spoken in the world and, more important yet, one of the idioms enjoying greater expansion, resulting not just from our countries’ demographic growth but also from the exponential increase of the interest it is globally attracting. An interest that will tend to accompany the growing economic and political weight, in the international stage, of some of its members.

This reality, which is an extraordinary strategic asset, both in political and economic terms, also imposes upon us great challenges for the future.

Challenges that start in each of our countries, where investment in education and training in the Portuguese language must be viewed as a priority.

We know that not all of us have the same resources in the knowledge of the language. A concert of efforts on a political level is thus imperative, which will allow creating logistic and financial conditions so that those who have available the human means may support those who need them most. CPLP could be the ideal forum for this joint reflection and for the adoption of cooperation programmes comprising all its members, based upon a sole container of human and financial resources.

But Portuguese Language as a foreign language must equally become a firm and sustainable investment. The expansion of the Portuguese language, as a truly universal language, reinforces the assertion of the voice of each of our countries and that of CPLP itself in the international stage, with the consequent political and economic opportunities.

It is necessary that we proceed with efforts for the effective implementation of the guidelines of the Heads of State and of Government and, particularly, of the measures foreseen in the Brasilia Action Plan.

It was with this spirit, in the strong conviction of the importance of the internationalization of the Portuguese Language for the assertion of each of our countries and for the defence of our interests that, when I presided at the first open debate of the Security Council, under Portuguese Presidency, i decided to speak in Portuguese, clearly stating that I did so in an idiom that is amply justified should be raised as an official language of the several international organizations of which the CPLP States are members, starting, evidently, with the United Nations.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

These are some of the many challenges that are facing us. Let us hope that this festive day, in which this Palace is reborn for History with the colours of the future, shall become the signal of our drive, of our ambition and of our confidence in the future of our Community.

Thank you very much