Dili, May 5th, 2025 – This Monday, the National Parliament held a ceremony to commemorate World Portuguese Language Day, which will be celebrated on May 5th, 2025.
At the commemorative ceremony, the President of the AP-CPLP National Group, Maria Terezinha Viegas, pointed out that this year’s celebration of World Portuguese Language Day and the Day of the Portuguese Language and Culture in the CPLP, at the National Parliament, has the theme “Portuguese Language, a Door to the World”.
The member of Parliament Maria Terezinha Viegas said that Portuguese, which is the official language of nine countries, as well as the Macau Special Administrative Region, is present in several geopolitical blocs, such as the European Union, Mercosur and the BRICs. It is also the most widely spoken language in the southern hemisphere and is used by more than 265 million people on all continents (Europe, America, Africa, Asia and Oceania). Portuguese is considered to be one of the seven truly global languages on the planet.
In Timor-Leste, the Portuguese language has symbolic value and power. In the past, it was the language of resistance, clandestinity and guerrilla warfare, but it was also the language of diplomacy and the struggle for recognition of the right to self-determination within the international community.
The President of the AP-CPLP Group emphasized that, as the only Portuguese-speaking country in Southeast Asia, Timor-Leste can be seen as a natural bridge between the two worlds, which have known each other for over 500 years, and will become a link between cultures and values, namely through regional dialogue and the opening of other doors to the world.
On the same occasion, the Portuguese Ambassador to Timor-Leste, Manuela Bairos, said that the Portuguese language in the CPLP is a space for affirming unity, and in Timor-Leste it is a factor of identity, which is very rich and complex from a linguistic point of view.
The Portuguese diplomat added that any language in the world is a political instrument, and the Portuguese language in Timor-Leste is a strategic factor in regional and global affirmation.
Timor-Leste is about to join ASEAN, which will be a link between ASEAN and the CPLP, and Timor-Leste, as a young country with two decades of existence in the Portuguese-speaking world, has its own weight, because it represents Asia. For this reason, it will be a country with its own variant of the Portuguese language, which will naturally be different from the Portuguese used in Africa or Brazil, whose variants are already consolidated within the CPLP.
The celebration of World Portuguese Language Day, presided over by the President of the National Parliament, Maria Fernanda Lay, was also attended by the Vice-Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, members of the National Parliament, the Secretary General of the National Parliament, students from CAFE Dili and the Portuguese School of Ruy Cinatti-Dili.
The celebration ended with the presentation of prizes to the winners of the Portuguese poetry reading competition. END