Carcavelos, Portual, July 16, 2026 (Lusa) - Portugal's foreign minister, Paulo Rangel, highlighted on Thursday the importance of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), particularly the Portuguese-language African countries, on the world stage in the near future.
“It is essential that we realise that the CPLP, which celebrates its 30th anniversary on Friday, and that Portuguese-language countries have a very significant role to play in the near future,” Rangel said during his speech at the EurAfrican Forum 2026 in Lisbon.
For the minister, “the most decisive factor in the outlook for the African continent is, naturally, demographics”.
“Africa will perhaps, by the end of the century, be the world’s most populous continent or virtually on a par with Asia. But, more importantly than that, unequivocally and by a very wide margin, is that the continent will be the youngest in the world. These two factors are fundamental strategic assets that are already reshaping the 21st century and will decisively shape the 22nd century,” he said.
The minister emphasised that these two factors will have a decisive impact on Portuguese as a global language, noting that it is already “the fifth most widely spoken language in the world, the third most widely spoken in the Western Hemisphere, and perhaps the first in the Southern Hemisphere.”
“Therefore, simply by the fact that we can increase the number of speakers from 270 million to a figure that will certainly exceed 500 million, this will obviously establish the Portuguese language as a language of communication,” he remarked.
On the future and the CPLP’s ability to assert itself, Rangel also said that he is “realistic”, as “the CPLP will have a future”.
This assertion regarding the Portuguese-speaking bloc, according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, is an “indisputable fact” and “it is obviously up to the CPLP countries to capitalise on this great comparative advantage they will have in the future”.
“It is absolutely essential to understand that the CPLP, whose strength lies first and foremost in the fact that it spans four continents, has Africa at its heart, because two-thirds of the CPLP’s members are African countries – six out of nine,” he said.
Africa “will always be the platform for the CPLP’s success, because it is in Africa that the majority of CPLP states are located. “Therefore, to consider the CPLP without looking at the African continent and the place that Portuguese-speaking countries hold in Africa is clearly a mistake in perspective,” declared Rangel.
Without losing sight of the importance of the bloc’s continental nature, “the African continent is the lever, the one that will truly be the CPLP’s hub in the global context,” the minister assessed.
Rangel stated that African countries in particular, notably Angola and Mozambique, will play a key role in significantly increasing the number of Portuguese speakers within 50 to 60 years, and that there must be “investment in capacity-building in the Portuguese language across scientific, technological and cultural fields”.
The minister also emphasised the importance of fostering a spirit of convergence rather than rivalry between the European and African continents, noting that the best of each continent, Africa’s youth and Europe’s development, should be harnessed to create a complementary relationship.
For Rangel, this relationship between Europe and Africa, whilst each will obviously engage with other partners, can also stand up to other centres of geopolitical power, notably the Americas, led by the United States, and the Indo-Pacific, where China and India play prominent roles.
CSR/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
