[2019-07-03] President of Mozambique wants free movement of people in Portuguese-speaking countries

Source: Macauhub

The Mozambican President said on Tuesday in Lisbon that Portuguese-speaking countries cannot have walls, the Portuguese press reported, adding that Filipe Nyusi had made a commitment to work to unlock the issue of mobility in the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP).

The Mozambican head of state, speaking at the Belém Palace in Lisbon, after a meeting with his Portuguese counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, acknowledged, however, that the issue of free movement of persons within the CPLP depends, particularly in Portugal’s case, on international rules.

“The problem will be Portugal, but we’ll see how we can do it. Portugal is part of a community called the European Union, which has its own rules,” said Nyusi, who started a four-day state visit to Portugal on Tuesday.

Nyusi noted that citizens of Mozambique and Angola can already travel freely between the two countries, adding that “people cannot be closed in,” and announced that the President of Cabo Verde [and president of the CPLP] will visit Mozambique at the end of the month, with mobility being one of the topics under discussion.

The model of the free movement of persons in the CPLP, proposed by Cabo Verde and supported by Portugal, provides that each country can choose the type of mobility that it intends to apply, with which country or group of countries among the nine, as well as the timetable for its adoption.

The proposal is due to be analysed at the next meeting of foreign ministers of the Portuguese-speaking community, scheduled for 19 July, in Mindelo, Cabo Verde.

The Mozambican President and the Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa are speaking on Wednesday at the opening of the Portugal/Mozambique Business Forum in Lisbon and will then move on to the 4th Portugal-Mozambique Summit where agreements between the two countries are due to be signed.

During the state visit, Nyusi, accompanied by a delegation including several ministers, members of parliament and businesspeople, will take part alongside the Portuguese President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, at the Euro-Africa Forum, organised by the Diaspora Council in Cascais, “in a panel dedicated to the theme of reconstruction, in the context of the catastrophe of Cyclones Idai and Kenneth.”