In this scenario, “we will have to reschedule all activities and meetings. Therefore, I think that, at this moment, the conditions for holding the summit in early September, in Luanda, are unlikely to be met,” said Ambassador Francisco in statements to Lusa. Ribeiro Telles, stressing, however, that “this is an assessment that will have to be made by all CPLP member states”. The “coronavirus hit the CPLP’s agenda and work hard. We had a set of meetings scheduled for the months of March and April, namely the joint meeting of the Ministers of Economy, Trade and Finance and also of the Investment Agencies of the CPLP countries” that had to be canceled, “he explained.
These meetings were aimed at “preparing the summit of Heads of State, in Luanda, next September, and opening the way for the constitution of an economic pillar” within the organization. At the same time, and also because of the pandemic, the CPLP had to postpone, without a new date, the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, scheduled for this month, in Cape Verde, whose objective was to close “the important dossier of the mobility “, a flag of Cape Verde, a country that currently has the rotating presidency of the organization, said Ribeiro Telles. This was another essential meeting, so that, in this way, the proposal for the free movement of people in the CPLP space could be presented and voted on by the “Presidents [of the member states] in early September”, in Angola, precisely the country that at the summit he would assume the presidency of the organization, said the diplomat.
