Portuguese President Aníbal Cavaco Silva will make an official visit to Cape Verde in July following Cape Verdean Prime Minister José Maria Neves’ trip to Portugal in June. According to Portugal’s ambassador to Praia, Graça Andresen Guimarães, relations between the two countries are at one of their “best moments ever.”

The Portuguese president will make an official visit to Cape Verde in July of this year, with Praia and Lisbon still to decide on the exact date of the trip, according to declarations made to Portuguese news agency Lusa by the Portuguese ambassador in Cape Verde.

Graça Andresen Guimarães stressed that Cavao Silva’s visit is yet another “opportunity for the expansion and renovation of cooperation” between the two countries, recalling that the Portuguese head-of-state previously came to Cape Verde in 2006 to attend the swearing-in of Pedro Pires to his second term as President.

“Relations between the two countries are at one of their best moments ever, and the excellence of this relationship is very visible in the intensity of the political dialogue developed, and in the constant visits by representatives of the members of the Portuguese government to Cape Verde and by representatives of the Cape Verdean government to Portugal,” he said.

Graça Andresen Guimarães also made reference to the visit Portuguese Prim Minister José Sócrates made to Cape Verde in March 2009, accompanied by eleven members of his cabinet, as well as Neves’ various trips to Lisbon during the same year.

The Portuguese ambassador also added that prior to Cavaco Silva’s trip to Cape Verde, José Maria Neves will make an official visit to Portugal.

In 2009, Neves made two work-related visits to Portugal, in late March and in late June.

José Maria Neves has repeatedly stated that Portugal is Cape Verde’s “main partner” in the realm of the development of sectors strategic to the country’s economy.