Praia, Sept. 11, 2025 (Lusa) - The Vice-President of the Regional Government of the Azores, Artur Lima, has expressed his desire to strengthen air links between the United States, the Azores and Cabo Verde and to foster cooperation in areas such as science, technology and cybersecurity between the archipelagos.
"I believe it is possible to increase these links. There is a very large Cabo Verdean community in Boston [United States], in that area of Rhode Island, as well as on Terceira Island in the Azores," said Artur Lima in the city of Praia after a meeting with Cabo Verdean Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva on Wednesday.
According to the Vice-President of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, at present, flights by the Azorean airline SATA connect Boston-Ponta Delgada-Praia, but he considered it possible to strengthen this connection.
He added that "there will be every willingness and interest on the part of both peoples, who have been friends for many years, to strengthen these relations and, obviously, connectivity and mobility."
In addition, he stressed the need to work on the issues of cybersecurity, technology and scientific knowledge, both in the Azores and in Cabo Verde, including through science and technology parks.
"These are projects that I am taking from the prime minister's suggestions for us to develop," he said.
Artur Lima pointed out that there are already several collaborative projects in the areas of climate change and ocean protection, but that, for the future, "it is very important to work on the geostrategic dimension of Macaronesia in partnership with Cabo Verde."
"Of course, Cabo Verde is a state and the Azores are an autonomous region, but we appreciate the prime minister's willingness to collaborate with us in this spirit of building and amplifying the importance of Macaronesia. This is not limited to ongoing projects, but above all aims to assert our geostrategic importance, which is so relevant in today's unstable world," he said.
Furthermore, he considered that Europe needs this Macaronesia - the Azores and Madeira (Portugal), the Canary Islands (Spain) and Cabo Verde - "which gives it an extraordinary Atlantic dimension, important for biodiversity, climate change, defence and world peace".
The Azores and Cabo Verde have established partnerships and strengthened cooperation through agreements and memoranda of understanding covering areas such as tourism, transport, culture, the environment, education and socio-economic development, with a view to bringing the population and institutions of the two archipelagos closer together to enhance their mutual development.
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