The CPLP Maritime Forum is a common home where Portuguese-speaking countries can reflect on and value the ocean.
Born from the Memorandum of Understanding signed on March 23, 2017, by the National Defense Institute of Timor-Leste (IDN-TL), the Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences of Portugal (ISCSP), the Brazilian Navy Naval War College (EGN-MB), and the Portuguese Navy (MP), the Forum has a clear academic purpose: to enhance the maritime aspects of CPLP countries in the political, economic, social, cultural, security, and environmental domains, in line with the community’s ocean strategy.
Over the years, this mission has been expressed through the organization of seminars, conferences, workshops, and other knowledge-sharing activities, always with the ambition of transforming ideas into cooperation, and cooperation into concrete benefits for our societies.
From its inception, its academic activity has established itself with regularity and quality.
In March 2017, the ISCSP in Lisbon hosted the 1st Seminar. Professor Adriano Moreira, a mentor to several generations of Portuguese speakers and a leading figure in Portuguese strategic thought, attended the seminar. His work and teaching have emphasized, over the decades, the centrality of the sea to the identity, security, and development of the CPLP countries.
His serene, demanding, and visionary speech reminded us that maritime Lusophony is not only a historical legacy, but also an agenda for the future, calling on universities, government forces and services, scientific communities, and policymakers to work together.
The presence of Professor Adriano Moreira lent intellectual authority and strategic reach to the Forum’s opening, conveying a message of shared responsibility: transforming knowledge into cooperation and making the ocean a factor of unity, prosperity, and peace within the CPLP region.
This was followed in November 2018 by the 2nd Seminar, organized by the Portuguese Navy. In October 2019, the Naval War College in Brazil hosted the III Seminar; and, after the interruption caused by the pandemic that prevented the 2020 edition in Dili, the ISCSP returned to host the IV Seminar in April 2023.
On that occasion, the participants unanimously agreed to entrust the IDN-TL with the Executive Secretariat for the 2024–2025 biennium, assigning it the mandate to plan and execute the Forum’s agenda with renewed dynamism.
The Forum is a vibrant and diverse network, made up of institutions and individuals who know the sea inside out. Its Institutional Members include the Angolan Academy of Social Sciences and Technologies (ACITE); the EGN-MB; the Maritime Port Institute of Cape Verde; the University of Cape Verde; the Cape Verde Coast Guard; the ISCSP; the MP; the Coast Guard of São Tomé and Príncipe; and the IDN-TL.
This community expands even further to include individual members and guests who enrich the debate with operational experience, scientific knowledge, and strategic vision. This diversity underpins the Forum’s strength as a space where academics, decision-makers, diplomats, and forces and services with responsibilities at sea and in the blue economy meet to think together.
In 2024, now under the Executive Secretariat of the IDN-TL, the Forum took a decisive step forward by holding its 1st Online Conference on October 16th, dedicated to the theme “Strengthening the Maritime Value of CPLP Countries.”
Conceived as a working meeting among institutional members, the Conference focused on four essential axes for the Forum’s immediate future: raising awareness among CPLP societies about the importance of the sea and the role of entities that plan and implement maritime policies; promoting strategic studies on the maritime spaces of our countries; intensifying the exchange of information and the sharing of methodologies; and improving the organization of events and initiatives that broaden the public impact of this agenda.
The opening session, led by the Acting Director of the IDN-TL, Dr. Guilherme Soares, and the opening address by His Excellency the Minister of Defense of Timor-Leste, CALM Prof. Dr. Donaciano Gomes, highlighted the political commitment to an active, useful, and results-oriented Forum.
In the following panels, experts from the Portuguese-speaking community, including Capt. Prof. Dr. William de Sousa Moreira, Capt. Prof. Dr. André Panno Beirão, Capt. Prof. Dr. Cláudio Rodrigues Correa, and Prof. Dr. Rafael Zelesco Barreto, from the EGN-MB, as well as Capt. Delgado Vicente, from the Hydrographic Institute of the Ministry of the Interior, shared experiences and concrete proposals to improve maritime literacy, consolidate a common base of studies and data, harmonize working methodologies, and professionalize event planning.
The final roundtable, moderated by ALM, António Silva Ribeiro summarized lessons and priorities, establishing a pragmatic roadmap for action: communicating better, studying more, and acting together. The closing session outlined the next steps and projects.