Lisbon, Sept. 14, 2025 (Lusa) - Economist Carlos Lopes told Lusa on Sunday that Portugal's relationship with its former colonies is different from that of other former powers due to the size, location, and geography of the Portuguese-speaking African countries, collectively known as PALOP.

Speaking to Lusa as part of this year's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the independence of Portugal's former colonies, the former executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) said that Portugal's relationship with Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe and Mozambique is more positive than in other similar European cases.

"There are three reasons for this, the first being that Portugal, as a relatively small economy, does not appear as an economy with imperial intentions and therefore does not intervene in these countries to try to have influence and strategic dominance," said Carlos Lopes.

In addition, he continued, in other countries "there is a feeling of abandonment and a certain hypocrisy, and Portugal has overlooked this vision because it is seen as a very important lever in the European Union, it has an influence that eventually helps development and guarantees investments from the European Union, it is, let's say, an ally in order to achieve a certain type of vision and positive interpretation on the part of these countries".

The third reason for the close and friendly relationship between Portugal and the former colonies, exemplified by the fact that several heads of state from the Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP) celebrated the 50th anniversary of 25 April in Lisbon, has to do with Portuguese culture and language.

"The language ends up being, for each of these countries in different ways, a capital that needs to be preserved in regions where they are normally in a minority from a cultural and linguistic point of view," argued Carlos Lopes, referring to the fact that, in each African region, the former colonies are the only nations where Portuguese is an official language.

The PALOP are in French-speaking or English-speaking areas and "end up needing an alliance due to their territorial discontinuity and to exercise this solidarity between them and include Portugal because their size is not one of fear, but rather one of aggregation".

MBA/ADB // ADB.

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