The presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba and Uruguay, among others, have expressed their readiness to visit Portugal, head of state Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said during bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Ibero-American summit. .
“There have been very, very intense and varied bilateral contacts,” the President of the Republic said Saturday evening at a joint press conference with Prime Minister António Costa as they were about to wrap up the 28th Ibero-American Summit. .
Marcelo Rebelo de Souza mentioned “only examples of those who expressed a desire to go to Portugal: the President of Argentina and the President of Bolivia”.
“Obviously the Dominican Republic [onde fez uma visita oficial na quinta-feira]and the new president is ‘pro tempore’ [da Conferência Ibero-Americana]which is the Republic of Ecuador, which knows Portugal, but naturally I would like to visit Portugal on a state visit,” he added.
As for “Costa Rica, the bilateral talks went very well,” he said, also highlighting “Cuba, also with a long-awaited visit, and Uruguay.”
There were also meetings with the presidents of Chile, who for internal reasons “cannot go” to Portugal, and Colombia, also “not necessarily related to public policy,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Souza.
“The nuclear role of Portugal and Spain within the Ibero-American framework is obvious,” says the President of the Republic.
In turn, Prime Minister António Costa reaffirmed the hope that during the Spanish Presidency of the European Union in the second half of this year, it will be possible to move forward on an agreement with MERCOSUR, which he called “the most important economic agreement that can exist” .
The Prime Minister said that Portugal, through bilateral meetings, sought to “also contribute to the unblocking of this agreement.”
António Costa reiterated his support for the work of António Guterres as Secretary General of the United Nations and António Vitorino as Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), topics he also touched upon in his speech at this summit.
Antonio Vitorino, whom Portugal wants to see re-elected as head of the IOM, took part in the 28th Ibero-American Summit.
The President of the Republic described this summit as “perhaps the most interesting of the Ibero-American summits” in which he participated, and one of the “most pluralistic”, with “a diversity of points of view that led to an agreed declaration”. “.
Regarding the war in Ukraine, Marcelo Rebelo de Souza pointed to the search for “a form of consensus” that would be “a reference to the importance of peace and respect for international law, especially the integrity of the territory of states.”
According to the head of state, on this issue there were “very great efforts on the part of Spain and Portugal, and specifically in the case of Portugal, on the part of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to find a text that could win the approval of such different countries and with such different positions in voting at the UN “.
“We will strive for a complete, just and lasting peace throughout the world based on the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, including the principles of sovereign equality and the territorial integrity of states, which, in addition, will contribute to ending the adverse consequences of wars, including human victims, food, financial, energy and environmental security crisis,” the final declaration of the summit says.
At the summit in Santo Domingo, under the motto “Together for a just and sustainable Ibero-America”, 13 of the 22 countries of the Ibero-American community were represented at the highest level.
In attendance were the heads of state of Ecuador, the host of the next summit, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Honduras, Paraguay and Uruguay, as well as the host country of the Dominican Republic, and the heads of government of Portugal and Spain.
Two of those absent were Presidents Lula da Silva of Brazil and López Obrador of Mexico, two of Latin America’s largest economies. Lula da Silva did not go to the Dominican Republic because he had a visit to the People’s Republic of China scheduled, but it was postponed due to health reasons.
The Ibero-American community consists of 22 countries, of which three are European, Portugal, Spain and Andorra, and 19 are Latin American: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
The first summit of this community was held in 1991 in Guadalajara, Mexico. Meetings of heads of state and government were held annually until 2014. Since then they have been held every two years.
As a rule, Portugal is jointly represented at Ibero-American summits by heads of state and government.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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