Lisbon, Nov. 27, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said on Thursday that he had contacted his Guinean counterpart, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, who told him he was in good health and had a "grateful, positive and friendly reaction".
"I simply did what a head of state should do, which was to contact the Guinean head of state to find out how he was doing, which I did yesterday [Wednesday]," Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told journalists at the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, regarding the situation in Guinea-Bissau.
Rebelo de Sousa reported that Sissoco Embaló told him that he was "in good health and that he was in a situation that he considered, for his part, to be one that did not warrant any comment for the time being".
"I felt that anything more than that would be interfering in Guinea's internal affairs. I informed the government that the reaction had been grateful, positive and friendly," he added.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was speaking at the end of a joint visit with the President of Slovakia, Peter Pellegrini, to the Champalimaud Foundation.
Asked about the situation in Guinea-Bissau, where a group of soldiers announced on Wednesday that they had seized power, ahead of the announcement of the results of the general elections on 23 November, the President of the Republic began by responding that he had been following events through the Portuguese Government and that he agreed with its position.
"It is an internal matter for that country, but naturally it justifies the concern of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP)," which has called "a meeting to address this issue," he said.
According to the Portuguese head of state, "there is nothing like not expressing opinions on a matter without verifying the facts and respecting what is being defined in a sovereign country in relation to its internal affairs."
"So far, we have not received any reports of problems involving Portuguese citizens," he said.
In his view, the Portuguese government has taken a "very sensible and careful" position on the events in Guinea-Bissau.
The president endorsed the message that "the ideal situation is for there to be no disruption to the normal order and life of people and institutions, for the contours of the ongoing electoral process to be understood, because it was still ongoing" and for the "immediate outcome of events" to be known.
On the peace negotiations in Ukraine, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa reiterated that "there is no point in finding a quick solution if it is a quick solution that has many weaknesses and is therefore quickly overtaken by events and does not please anyone".
"It does not please Russia, which has always had a very firm and clear position on this matter. It does not please Ukraine, which has fundamental points that President Zelensky constantly repeats, in terms of territorial integrity, in terms of borders, in terms of ensuring its own armed defence capability," he pointed out.
"And of course it does not please Europe, because it is not a lasting solution that provides lasting security. In X amount of time, sooner rather than later, everything will be up for discussion again," he added.
He warned that "reaching a ceasefire while leaving fundamental issues unresolved has already been seen to cause many problems, even in other areas, such as the Middle East, where there are problems every day and issues arise every day."
"Therefore, for all these reasons, we must constantly monitor the steps that are taken and never allow, on the part of Europe as a whole, essential points to be overlooked, which are not only for Ukraine, but for any state in the future, particularly in Europe," he argued.
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