Foreign Minister Rui Machete explained that the “Portuguese Government continues to demonstrate its full availability to work with the United States in seeking out a solution which maximises the use of the Lajes base while also reinforcing the strategic relationship between the two nations without penalising the people of Terceira Island” in the Azores.
Speaking this week at the annual meeting of the government and the Portuguese diplomatic corps, the Foreign Minister also discussed the appearance of the so-called Islamic State, the crisis in Ukraine and the Ebola epidemic.
Members of the government and diplomats met on Tues-day and Wednesday in Lisbon for their customary diplomatic seminar to present the main Portuguese foreign policy priorities.
Rui Machete also referred to the “Portuguese diplomacy successes” last year including the country’s election to the UN Human Rights Council and the Economic and Social Council and the fact that the country took over the presidency of the OECD Foreign Relations Committee.
Portugal’s foreign minister also argued that the Portuguese-speaking world offers huge economic opportunities for members of the Community of Portuguese-Language Countries (CPLP), who together account for four percent of world trade.
“The organisation represents about four percent of world trade and encompasses some countries with the most dynamic economies in the regions in which they are found, constituting an important link to a vast network of regional economic organisations,” the minister told the assembled Portuguese diplomats and other government officials.
“The development of these economic spaces will create new opportunities for trade and investment, both for Portuguese-language companies and for those that trade with them, including those from the [CPLP’s] new associate observers,” he went on, in a reference to Japan, Turkey, Namibia and Georgia.
Machete noted that the nine member states’ heads of state and government will be at a summit in 2016 to define a new strategic vision for the CPLP.
Last year, East Timor presided over the community for the first time, hosting the 10th summit in Dili, where Equatorial Guinea was admitted as a full member.
On that - somewhat controversial - move, Machete noted that “at Portugal’s initiative, in the Dili declaration the need was recorded for a clear commitment on the part of Equatorial Guinea for the adoption of the principles that the CPLP abides by, namely the abolition of the death penalty, following on from the moratorium previously approved.”
The minister also stressed the quality of bilateral relations between Portugal and other Portuguese-language countries, but said that in the wake of the expulsion by East Timor last year of several Portuguese legal officials seconded to the country, a “reassessment” of cooperation in that field was necessary and continues. Portugal maintains, he added, its interest “in fruitful and diverse cooperation”.
As for Angola, which in 2013 cancelled plans for a strategic partnership with Portugal, bilateral relations “today have a notable density and momentum”, Machete said.
Elsewhere, the minister noted other priorities for Portugal’s foreign policy, such as China, Japan and South Korea, as well as countries in the Maghreb and, in Africa, including Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia.