News from Islands
Cape Verde to host 1st ECOWAS/Brazil Summit in July
Praia, Cape Verde, 7 Jun – Cape Verde’s Sal Island will host this July the first summit meeting between the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Brazil, which will be attended by heads of state or government from the 16 countries involved.
Brazil’s ambassador in Cape Verde, Maria Dulce Barros, confirmed to Portuguese news agency Lusa that President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva would attend the summit on 2 July and return the next day to Brazil.
The holding of an ECOWAS/Brazil summit was announced last 19 February by Cape Verdean Foreign Minister Jose Brito, who told Lusa at the time that the gathering was proposed by Cape Verde.
Brito then stressed that the idea for the “extraordinary” summit was to “pay homage” to the Brazilian president “for the way he has developed relations with Africa in general and West Africa in particular”, and to boost commercial relations between Brazil and South America and the West African countries.
ECOWAS was founded 35 years ago on 28 May 1975. Besides Cape Verde, its members are Benin, Burkino Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
Source: macauhub
