The Community of Portuguese Language Countries (Portuguese: Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa; abbreviated as CPLP), occasionally known in English as the Lusophone Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organization of Lusophone nations across four continents, where Portuguese is an official language, mostly of former colonies of the Portuguese Empire. The CPLP operates as a privileged multilateral forum for the mutual cooperation of the governments of its members, on both executive and ministerial levels, non-governmental organizations, and the various branches of the CPLP itself.
History[]
The CPLP was founded in 1989 in Lisbon. It was inspired by the Francophony and the Anglosphere. This owed to the Portuguese language having a privileged position in the world, particularly in the southern hemisphere.
Member states[]
- Portugal
- Catalonia
- Brazil
- Cape Verde
- Guinea-Bissau
- Equatorial Guinea
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Angola
- Zimbabwe
- South Africa
- Mozambique
- Goa
- Singapore
- Timor
The only country ever to join the CPLP since its inception was Catalonia, when Portuguese was declared an official language following a 2004 rectification.