Community of Portuguese Language Countries or Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (Portuguese: Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa, pronounced: [kumuniˈðað(ɨ) ðuʃ pɐˈizɨʒ ðɨ ˈlĩɡwɐ puɾtuˈɣezɐ] (EP), [komuniˈdadʒi dus paˈiziz dʒi ˈlĩɡwɐ poʁtuˈɡezɐ] (BP); abbreviated to CPLP) is the intergovernmental organization for friendship among lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) nations where Portuguese is an official language. The Portuguese-speaking countries are home to more than 240 million people located across the globe. The CPLP nations have a combined area of about 10,772,000 square kilometres (4,159,000 sq mi).

The CPLP was formed in 1996 with seven countries: Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe. East Timor joined the community in 2002 after gaining independence.

The CPLP is a bloc in the process of construction and the societies of the eight member nations have little knowledge of each other. One of the features of the CPLP is that its members are linked by a common language and shared cultural features, which form a bridge among countries separated by great distances and on different continents.

José Maria Vasconcelos, popularly known by his nom de guerre Taur Matan Ruak (Tetum for "Two Sharp Eyes") is an East Timorese politician who has been President of East Timor since 20 May 2012. Before entering politics, he was the Commander of the FALINTIL-Forças de Defesa de Timor-Leste (F-FDTL), the military of East Timor, from 2002 until 6 October 2011. Prior to serving in the F-FDTL, he was the last commander of the Armed Forces of National Liberation of East Timor or FALINTIL (Forças Armadas para a Liberação Nacional de Timor Leste), the insurgent army which resisted the Indonesian occupation of the territory from 1975 to 1999.

Leaving the military in 2011, he stood as an independent candidate in the 2012 presidential election and prevailed in the second round of the vote, held in April 2012.

On 7 December 1975, when Indonesia invaded East Timor, Taur Matan Ruak took to the hills with the recently formed FRETILIN Army, FALINTIL. As a combatant, he participated in battles against the Indonesian military in Dili, Aileu, Maubisse, Ossu, Venilale, Uatulari and finally in Laga on the northeastern coast, where he eventually stayed. Major-General Ruak’s first official FALINTIL appointment was at the end of 1976. From 1976 to 1979, he rose through the FALINTIL ranks in the two eastern military sectors, the Central East Sector and the Eastern Point, or the Ponta Leste Sector. Then he became a company commander.

Miguel Relvas (born in 1961) is the Portuguese Deputy and Parliamentary Affairs Minister of the Portuguese Government cabinet headed by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho.

Miguel Relvas was born in Lisbon in 1961, but lived with his two brothers and his parents in Portuguese Angola until the events of the Carnation Revolution of 1974. Returned to Europe, he was a pupil at the Colégio Nun'Álvares (High School), in Tomar, and afterwards attended the University of Lisbon Law School but did not graduate. In 2007, he was awarded a bachelor degree in political sciences and international relations by the Universidade Lusófona. In 2011 he was appointed Deputy and Parliamentary Affairs Minister of the Portuguese Government cabinet headed by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho.