Costa says goodbye to Guterres and highlights changes in Portugal at the UN since April 25

Outgoing Prime Minister António Costa bids farewell this Monday to UN Secretary-General António Guterres at a ceremony in New York, highlighting the significant changes that April 25 brought to Portugal within the United Nations. .

Speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters, António Costa noted that this is an opportunity not only to “say goodbye to António Guterres as UN Secretary-General”, but also to celebrate the 50th anniversary on April 25, emphasizing that Portugal’s participation and vision in The UN has changed radically.

“We celebrate our 50th anniversary on April 25, and if anything has changed significantly since April 25, it has been due to our participation in the United Nations. Between 1961 and 1974, Portugal was the subject of more than 50 verdicts by the Security Council or the UN General Assembly,” he noted.

“Today, fortunately, 50 years later, we are a democratic country, in a world open to the whole world, and of which we can be proud not only that we are not isolated, but also that a Portuguese is the Secretary General of the United Nations Nations. Nations,” added António Costa.

António Costa meets this Monday with António Guterres in New York as part of the donation by the Portuguese State of Vanessa Barragao’s tapestry entitled “Coral Vivo” to an international organization.

The tapestry, which “celebrates the importance and richness of coral reefs, the world’s most biodiverse ecosystem”, will be part of a permanent exhibition at the United Nations headquarters, and with this donation the government “intends to value the country’s participation, active role in organizing and her “leading role” in the oceans agenda, Antonio Costa’s office said.

At the same time, Portugal recognizes “the role of António Guterres in the fight against climate change and in uncompromisingly defending the sustainable development agenda and action for the ocean” in the year that marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Law of the Sea. The United Nations (UN) is celebrated.

This Monday, Costa said the tapestry also symbolizes Portugal’s commitment to the oceans and the preservation of the planet.

“Portugal is an Atlantic country, most of its territory is occupied by the sea, and we have been committed from the very beginning to protect the oceans as a fundamental element in the fight against climate change, and the oceans are a great regulator of the climate, because of their biodiversity and the potential that should provide us all with food,” – he said.

“And we do this through the work of a young artist, born much later than April 25, who constructs her tapestries from waste from textile mills. So, it is a way of reusing as well as recycling waste, and this is the second obligation we face to save our planet,” he concluded.