By Luzia Santos
The Dominican Republic will apply to become an associate observer of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP).
CPLP’s executive secretary, Zacarias da Costa, will deliver the formal expression of interest soon.
According to Zacarias da Costa, the Government of the Dominican Republic expressed to him the country’s willingness to become an associate observer of the CPLP, in a meeting last Friday, 24, in Santo Domingo, on the sidelines of the 28th Ibero-American Summit.
During the meeting, the two leaders discussed this and other matters of interest to the Dominican Republic and the community with the executive secretary of the CPLP.
As for the formal letter necessary to formalize the Dominican Republic’s interest in joining the Lusophone organization, “it will soon be delivered” to the executive secretary of the CPLP, said Zacarias da Costa, without giving any possible dates.
Also, on Friday, the ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Relations of Ibero-America approved the candidacy of the CPLP as a consultative observer of that community.
On March 23, Zacarias da Costa had already announced that the CPLP would become a consultative observer for the Ibero-American Community at the Santo Domingo summit and would strengthen cooperation with that organization in areas such as health and food, justice, and language, as Lusa reported.
Prime Minister António Costa announced on Saturday that Portugal had taken the initiative to set up a fund, starting with one million euros, for cooperation between the Ibero-American community and the CPLP.
In a speech at the Summit, António Costa welcomed “the accession as an observer of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries [CPLP] to the Ibero-American community.
The Portuguese prime minister considered this “a significant step” and noted that the Ibero-American community was already an observer in the CPLP space.
The two organizations with two member states in common – Brazil and Portugal – already share Portuguese as their official and working language.
In addition, some Ibero-American member states – Andorra, Argentina, Chile, Spain, Peru, and Uruguay – are associated observers of the CPLP.
At the next CPLP summit, to be held in São Tomé and Príncipe in the summer, Paraguay’s application to become an associate observer should be approved, the executive secretary announced in his speech on the 23rd, adding that Colombia has also formalized its wish to join the Portuguese-speaking community.
With information from Forbes