Foreign relations of Portugal

The Community of Portuguese Language Countries (Portuguese: Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa; abbr. : CPLP), also known as the Lusophone Community (Portuguese: Comunidade Lusófona), is an international organization and political association of Lusophone nations across five continents, where Portuguese is an official language. The CPLP operates as a privileged, multilateral forum for the mutual cooperation of the governments, economies, non-governmental organizations, and peoples of the Lusofonia. The CPLP consists of 9 member states and 33 associate observers, located in Europe, South America, Asia, Africa and Oceania, totaling 38 countries and 4 organizations.

Mateus (Portuguese for Matthew), also known as Matthew the Armenian (died May, 1520), was an Ethiopian ambassador sent by regent queen Eleni of Ethiopia to king Manuel I of Portugal and to the Pope in Rome, in search of a coalition to help on the increasing threat that Ethiopia faced from the growing Muslim influence in the region. Mateus arrived at Goa in 1512, and traveled to Portugal in 1514, from where he returned with a Portuguese embassy, along with Francisco Álvares. The Portuguese only understood the nature of his mission after they arrived in Ethiopia in 1520, shortly after Mateus' death, a fact that complicated their mission to the new Ethiopian Emperor.

Francisco Álvares (c.– 1536-1541) was a Portuguese missionary and explorer. In 1515 he traveled to Ethiopia as part of the Portuguese embassy to emperor Lebna Dengel accompanied by returning Ethiopian ambassador Matheus. The embassy arrived only in 1520 to Ethiopia where he joined long sought Portuguese envoy Pêro da Covilhã. There he remained six years, returning to Lisbon in 1526-27 having written a report entitled Verdadeira Informação das Terras do Preste João das Indias ("A True Relation of the Lands of Prester John of the Indies").

The Portuguese-speaking African countries (Portuguese: Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa; PALOP), also known as Lusophone Africa, consist of six African countries in which the Portuguese language is an official language: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and, since 2011, Equatorial Guinea. The six countries are former colonies of the Portuguese Empire. From 1778 until independence, Equatorial Guinea was also a colony of the Spanish Empire.

Spain and Portugal acceded to the European Communities, now the European Union, in 1986. This was the third enlargement of the Communities, following on from the 1973 and 1981 enlargements. Their accessions are considered to be a part of the broader Mediterranean enlargement of the European Union.

EU Med, EuroMed 9, or MED9 (formerly MED7; from EUrope Mediterranean), which is also referred to as "Club Med" and "Med Group", is an alliance of nine Mediterranean and Southern European Union member states: Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. They are part of the Mediterranean Basin. All nine countries are states of the European Union, part of the eurozone (euro currency), and all except Cyprus are part of the unbounded Schengen Area.

The Ibero-American Summit, formally the Ibero-American Conference of Heads of State and Governments (Spanish: Cumbres Iberoamericanas de Jefes de Estado y de Gobierno, Portuguese: Cimeiras (or Cúpulas) Ibero-Americanas de Chefes de Estado e de Governo), is a yearly meeting of the heads of government and state of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking nations of Europe and the Americas, as members of the Organization of Ibero-American States. The permanent secretariat in preparation of the summits is the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB).

The Instituto Camões (English: Camões Institute), formally, Camões — Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, I. P. (English: Camões — Institute for Cooperation and Language, Public Institute), is a Portuguese international institution dedicated to the worldwide promotion of the Portuguese language, Portuguese culture, and international aid, on behalf of the Government of Portugal. Headquartered in Lisbon with centers across five continents, the mission of the Instituto Camões is the promotion of Portugal's language, culture, values, charity, and economy. The institution is named for Portuguese Renaissance author Luís Vaz de Camões, considered the greatest poet of the Portuguese language and the national poet of Portugal.