Relationship dossier
Cape Verde
Guinea-Bissau
Relationship assessment
A shared independence movement and union project were followed by a major political rupture in 1980.
Cape Verde toward Guinea-Bissau
+15Cape Verde’s leadership participated in the PAIGC independence movement and pursued closer political union with Guinea-Bissau after independence. The 1980 coup in Guinea-Bissau disrupted that project and strained relations with Cape Verde’s leadership.
Guinea-Bissau toward Cape Verde
+15Guinea-Bissau’s PAIGC leadership pursued closer political union with Cape Verde after independence. The 1980 coup ended the project and contributed to a political rupture with Cape Verde’s leadership.
Overall relationship
+10The relationship’s enduring structure reflects shared roots in the PAIGC and a post-independence project of political union, offset by the rupture following Guinea-Bissau’s 1980 coup. The later course and depth of bilateral cooperation are less clear.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau share a political history rooted in the PAIGC independence movement and pursued a project of closer political union after independence. The 1980 coup in Guinea-Bissau ended that project and contributed to a rupture between the two countries’ political leaderships. This history combines concrete cooperation with a major breakdown in relations; the scope and continuity of later government cooperation are less clear.
Areas of tension
- The 1980 coup in Guinea-Bissau ended the political union project and strained relations between the countries’ leaderships.
Key developments
After independence, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau pursued closer political union rooted in their shared PAIGC movement.
A coup in Guinea-Bissau ended the political union project and contributed to a rupture with Cape Verde’s leadership.
Major uncertainties
- The scope and implementation of later bilateral cooperation arrangements are unclear.
- The extent of subsequent government efforts to repair relations after the 1980 rupture is unclear.