MNE believes that Europe has become important in the world, and Portugal today plays a “much more important” role than it has played in the past.

The Portuguese Foreign Minister believes that the strengthening of NATO and the European Union as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has also led to an increase in the importance of Europe in a world in which Portugal plays a role.

In an interview with Lusa on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is celebrated this Friday, Joao Gomes Cravinho said that after the response of Kiev’s European allies and the US, there is “an active dialogue with other parts of the world” for all reasons.

“Firstly, because today we have a relevance that is not equal to what it was in the past, a much greater relevance, and, secondly, because what is happening in Ukraine is relevant to the rest of the world, it is not just connected with the redefinition of borders in Eastern Europe, connected with Russia’s attempt to create a new world order, which would be (including for Portugal) extremely harmful,” he said.

Commenting on the geopolitical evolution over the past year, João Gomes Cravinho pointed to “elements of paradox”, stressing that NATO “acquired a new intensity and a great spirit of unity”.

The European Union, for its part, “has shown itself capable of taking much bolder decisions than anyone could have imagined a year or so ago, and thus establishing itself internationally as the reference point in a multipolar world.”

But another significant “element of the paradox,” he argued, is that attention, primarily from the European Union, has been focused on supporting Ukraine and protecting its territory from Russia, which is natural for the minister. But now it is necessary to transform “this role of power in a multipolar framework into a wider arena, namely the world stage.”

And Portugal was “very committed” to this expansion of influence, taking the message along with its main interlocutors, said the head of the Portuguese diplomacy, who was in Brasilia on Thursday in preparation for the Portuguese-Brazilian summit and hopes that the next meeting between the European Union and the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean will also be successful at this level, if we recall the recent presence of Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, as well as European Council President Charles Michel.

Portugal “is coping very well with this process,” the minister continued, expressing, on the one hand, “great solidarity, great generosity in various plans for relations with Ukraine” in terms of political, military, financial and humanitarian support. , but it has shown itself to be a country capable of building bridges with other parts of the world,” while parts of Europe were almost entirely concentrated in Ukraine.”

“Our call was consistent: “Don’t forget the relationship with Latin America, don’t forget the relationship with Africa and Asian countries, and we have played this role,” he said, also highlighting Lisbon’s proximity to the countries of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP).

These Portuguese-speaking relations have led to a “permanent dialogue” in which the great world problem is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” he stressed, adding: “Obviously, we talked about this issue, comparing our ideas and our positions.”

Despite the different positions in this political space regarding the Russian invasion, given that these are “different, different countries, as well as different historical trajectories”, João Gomes Cravinho pointed out that “there are most countries that are very close to Portugal in their vote in United Nations”.

This does not mean that Portugal is “uniform in the CPLP”, but the process of dialogue is ongoing. “I don’t want to say here that they make decisions based on what Portugal thinks, that’s not the case at all, they make decisions based on what their analysis of the situation is, but we are diligently talking to them about this reality,” said .

Returning to the European space, João Gomes Cravinho also touched on the prospect of European Union enlargement with recent membership requests from Ukraine and Georgia, to which he added other existing requests from the countries of the Western Balkans.

Enlargement, he argued, should not come at the cost of relaxing entry criteria: “We are convinced that we must not disappoint expectations. The European Union is weakening the words “yes sir, you are candidates, you will join”. but then does not move in that direction.

On the other hand, speaking in favor of “honest, sincere, open dialogue with these countries, which are without a doubt part of our Europe”, the head of Portuguese diplomacy noted that the expansion would mean changing mechanisms that are “slow and difficult” and in the transition from 27 to 35 countries need to “look at the functioning of institutions”.

On the other hand, he pointed out, “it cannot be ignored that the scale of Ukraine is completely different”, compared, for example, with Montenegro, where one country has more than 40 million inhabitants, in addition to being a large agricultural producer, and another half a million.

“All the characteristics of Ukraine indicate that we must look very seriously not only at the decision-making mechanisms, but also at the fundamental elements of the functioning of the European Union,” Cravigno insisted, pointing to the case of the Common Agricultural Policy. “before we can open the doors” for Ukraine: “If we are ready to accept Ukraine as a candidate country, we must also be ready to think about our way of thinking, because one implies another.”