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2 The Importance of CPLP 3 The Galician Case 4 Member states 5 See also 6 External link |
The formation
CPLP was formed in 1996 with seven countries (Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe). East Timor joined the community in 2002 after regaining independence from Indonesia.
The Importance of CPLP
The Portuguese-speaking countries are home to more than 223 million people located across the globe but having similar cultures. The CPLP nations have a combined area of 10,708,674 square kilometers, much larger than the USA or Canada.
Since the formation, the CPLP has already helped to salve problems in São Tomé and Príncipe and in Guinea-Bissau, because of two different coup d'etat in that countries. These two problems were solved, and in fact, have helped these two countries to take economical reforms (in the case of São Tomé) and democratical ones in Guinea-Bissau.
The Galician Case
Some Galicians want the autonomous region of Galicia (Galiza) in Spain to take part in this Union, because their language (Galego) is closely related to Portuguese (in fact many consider one to be a dialect of the other). The two languages (or dialects) have a common origin in Galicia and northern Portugal. A similar case happened with East Timor. But before independence East Timor had the status of Observer, although the exiled government of East Timor tried to gain full member status before independence.
Member states
These are the eight member states:
See also
External link