President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa this Thursday classified the relationship between Portugal and Latvia as a “geopolitical alliance” and said that the European Union should become a “strong global power”.
“Europe, the European Union, must become a strong world power, otherwise we will lose this opportunity – always in cooperation with the United States of America, with transatlantic relations,” he said, referring to the post about the future geopolitical framework. war in Ukraine.
The head of state spoke English in a Lisbon hotel at the closing session of the business forum, in which he took part together with his counterpart from Latvia, Egils Levits, who is in Portugal on a state visit.
Before the President of Latvia, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa called for strengthening bilateral trade relations, believing that “much more needs to be done”, and proposed cooperation in the energy sector, using the geographic location and energy ties of the two countries. countries: “You will work in the north, we will work in the south.”
According to the Portuguese head of state, Portugal and Latvia are in a “phase of geopolitical union” and are “very similar” countries, although far away: “You are in a very important geostrategic position, in the northeast of Europe and in the southwest of Europe. Both have a universal dimension, as platforms between continents, cultures and people.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa emphasized that both countries belong to the European Union and NATO, and mentioned that Latvia and Portugal have candidates for non-permanent seats on the UN Security Council for the bienniums 2026-2027 and 2027-2028, respectively.
As for the current international scenario with a war provoked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine “no one knows how long”, the President of the Republic considered that this is a “global war” that will “change the balance of power”.
“The United States of America will remain a superpower, Russia will emerge from the war the same way it entered, but weaker, as a regional power, and not as a global power,” he continued. “And there will be a China that will economically dominate Russia in some industries,” he predicted.
It was in this context that Marcelo Rebelo de Souza advocated that the European Union should become a “strong global power”.
“And we hope that India will appear when it wants to, but other countries may appear: South Africa, solving internal problems, and Brazil, solving the division that is really splitting the Brazilian society,” he added.