Welcome to the page of the State Visit to Cape Verde

Mister President Pedro Pires, my Dear Friend,
Mrs. Adélcia Barreto Pires,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I begin by thanking President Pedro Pires for his honourable invitation to carry out this State Visit to Cape Verde, as well as for the friendly words he saw fit to address me.

It is with great pleasure that my Wife and I are returning to this country, to which we are linked by so many and so deep human, cultural and linguistic bonds, and where we were always received with the warm hospitality that characterizes the generous people of Cape Verde.

I cannot but emphasize the great significance of this Visit, held precisely at the time when the 550 years of the Discovery of the Islands of Cape Verde and the 35th Anniversary of the country’s national independence are being celebrated, two distinctive events in our common history of fraternal countries and peoples.

When addressing the invitation for me to join these Commemorations, Your Excellency and the people of Cape Verde are honouring not just the President of the Republic but, above all, Portugal and the Portuguese, as well as the vast heritage of values and bonds on which is based the fraternal friendship between our peoples.

We are well aware that the path of these 35 years of independence was not exempt from difficulties and challenges. It revealed, however, a singular capacity to face the adversities with the most precious of all resources, the quality of the men and women of Cape Verde.

As Your Excellency stated recently, at the ceremony when the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa was attributed by the Lisbon Technical University, “intelligence, rigour and audacity” coupled with a “strong dose of utopia” were necessary to overcome the multiple challenges that the country had to face.

Portugal and the Portuguese are proud to have always sided with Cape Verde in its path as a sovereign and democratic State, supporting the strategic options and priorities determined by the country’s authorities. .

We are also proud to host, in Portugal, the largest Cape Verde community in its Diaspora, which has contributed, with its daily labour and its creativity, towards the development of Portugal and the approach between our two countries.

The recently carried out first Luso-Cape-Verde Summit and the signature of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Portugal and Cape Verde are an eloquent expression of the excellence of our bilateral relationship. They also interpret a firm determination in the continuous strengthening of our strategic partnership, with the certainty that this will be the best way to answer the expectations and concerns of our citizens.

Mister President,

My last visit to Cape Verde took place on the occasion of Your Excellency’s taking office, in March 2006, in that which was the first trip abroad in my mandate. I had the occasion, before that, to officially visit Cape Verde twice, as Prime Minister.

Today, as in all my previous visits, I was able to witness Cape Verde’s outstanding progress in the social and economic fields. This progress owes much to the continued investment in the qualification of human resources, in economic and administrative modernization and in technological development.

An investment which would not have been possible without the climate of peace, stability and security, to which is added a full and modern pluralist democracy, all of which have for long been a reality in Cape Verde and an example for all the African continent and for the World..

The picture of one of the best indices of human development in the entire continent and the promotion of Cape Verde as a Medium Income Country in the beginning of 2008, well reflect the progress that the country has been achieving.

I must congratulate all the people of Cape Verde, represented by Your Excellency, for these successes, which allowed placing the country on a path of prosperity and development.

Mister President,

Portugal is one of the main partners of Cape Verde, supporting, both bilaterally and multilaterally, the priorities determined in the framework of the country’s ambitious development plan.

The signing of the Special Partnership Agreement between the European Union and Cape Verde during the Portuguese Presidency in 2007 is a clear example of this. Thanks to this Agreement, Cape Verde is one of the first extra-community countries to receive a Common Visa Centre, allowing easier travel and circulation of Cape Verde nationals in the vast area of the EU which is covered by the Treaty of Schengen.

The scope of our bilateral cooperation is wide and comprehensive. Portugal occupies a leading place amongst the trading partners of Cape Verde. Our entrepreneurs are present in the most diverse fields, including tourism, renewable energies, construction, public works and the financial sector, thus providing its contribution for the country’s development.

It is however my firm conviction that there are complementarities between our two countries which could and should be better exploited.

One of the areas where Portugal and Cape Verde have abundant resources and a huge potential, is the Sea. A vision of the future for our cooperation necessarily implies that a greater advantage be taken from the Cape Verde maritime cluster, which results from its condition as an archipelago and its geographical situation in the routes of the South Atlantic. I am convinced that our entrepreneurs could take advantage of that situation to use Cape Verde as a platform of access to other markets and regions, betting simultaneously on the development and consolidation of a veritable economy of the Sea.

Mister President,

The talks we carried out today strengthen my conviction that we share the same vision of the strategic value of CPLP and the same drive for its deepening.

The challenges we all face in the current world, such as is the case with the economic and financial crisis, lead to the very clear conclusion that a strengthened and influential CPLP in the international context will mean, for its Member States, an increased capability for the promotion and defence of their interests and objectives.

The same may be said of the projection and international valuing of the Portuguese language, that extraordinary capital asset that we share with an increasing number of citizens in the four corners of the World. As is well known, the Portuguese Presidency has driven towards that objective, to which the coming Luanda Summit will surely confer a new impulse through the adoption of the Action Plan for the projection and dissemination of the Portuguese language in the world, and of the plan for the restructuring of the International Institute of the Portuguese Language, an institution which is hosted by Cape Verde and which I had the opportunity to visit today. .

I would like, in this context, to pay a sincere tribute to the Cape Verde culture, which has much contributed towards the cultural vitality of our Community, the enrichment and valuing of the Portuguese language, and its international projection.

Mister President,

It is once again clear, from the result of this visit, that Portugal and Cape Verde have long term converging interests. Not just in the political and economic fields, but also in culture, education, training of human resources, science and technology, strategic areas to conquer the challenges of the future.

It is on behalf of this future that I ask you all to join me in my best wishes for the health of President Pedro Pires and his Wife, for the growing prosperity of the people of Cape Verde and for the continued strengthening in the relationship of fraternal friendship between Portugal and Cape Verde.

Thank you very much.