Lisbon, July 3, 2026 (Lusa) - The executive secretary of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) said on Friday that the organisation comprises “nine member states”, emphasising that relations with Guinea-Bissau continue through the missions.
“We remain nine member states; therefore, we are nine member states. We continue to maintain our bilateral relations through our missions, which are represented in Guinea-Bissau,” said Maria de Fátima Monteiro Jardim, speaking to journalists following a visit by the Portuguese President, António José Seguro, to the organisation’s headquarters.
“Naturally, we are reviewing our entire dossier internally, with a view to drawing ever closer and being able to see – by the time elections are held, and beyond – that dialogue will naturally enable us, as is our wish, to welcome the country back into the CPLP,” added the Angolan diplomat, who will occupy the leadership of the community until 2027.
Speaking to journalists, Maria de Fátima Jardim added: “There is absolutely no suggestion here that Guinea-Bissau is not a member of the CPLP; on the contrary, we continue to state that there are nine member states, but, due to the instability the country is experiencing, we are keen to promote dialogue so that we can find a way out of this situation.”
In his address to the permanent ambassadors of the CPLP member countries and before the organisation’s leadership, held behind closed doors, Seguro stated – according to the speech published on the presidency office’s website – that “it is important to remember where we started from and not to lose our way”.
The CPLP’s Founding Declaration states, right at the outset, that its founders were “imbued with the enduring values of peace, democracy and the rule of law, human rights, development and social justice”, said the Head of State, adding: “We must never forget these values that unite us. And we must never forget the power that, together, we have to defend and promote these values both within and beyond our borders”.
Guinea-Bissau has been suspended from the CPLP following the military coup in November last year, and has been replaced by Timor-Leste in the temporary presidency of the organisation.
On 24 June, the National Transitional Council, established by the military to replace parliament, stated that the country’s continued membership of the CPLP would be decided in the forthcoming elections, scheduled for 6 December.
In a statement released by the Guinea-Bissau press, the Council stated that, “unlike mature and intelligent organisations, such as the Francophonie, of which Guinea-Bissau is a full member (…), the CPLP prefers to act with a ‘whip-in-hand’ complex, through illegal, anti-statutory means”.
The military were reacting to statements made by the Timorese prime minister, Xanana Gusmão, who announced in Lisbon that his country would assume the leadership of the CPLP at the end of the current term (following Guinea-Bissau’s presidency).
In the statement, they questioned “the double standards and backroom manoeuvring” and the reason why the CPLP had denied the presidency to Equatorial Guinea in order to hand it to Timor-Leste.
The current government of Guinea-Bissau, they continued, “refuses to submit to this club of backwaters, does not wish to return to this puppet organisation, and warns that it will hold its own sovereign elections, financed entirely from its own state coffers”.
The CPLP, which marks its 30th anniversary on 17 July, comprises Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste.
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