Prime Minister Luis Montenegro travels to Madrid this Monday, where he will be received by his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sánchez in the first official visit of the new leader of the Portuguese government.
A source from Luis Montenegro’s office told Lusa that the choice of Madrid for the prime minister’s first trip shows “the importance he attaches to the historical and cooperative relationship” between Portugal and Spain.
According to the same source, this meeting will serve as preparation for the next Portuguese-Spanish summit, the date of which has not yet been determined.
The Madrid meeting also aims to “strengthen the positions of the two countries vis-à-vis the European Union,” Luis Montenegro’s office said.
On the Madrid side, the Spanish government only stated that among the topics that Sanchez intends to discuss with Montenegro is the situation in the Middle East and the recognition of a Palestinian state.
Pedro Sánchez has promised to recognize Palestine as a state in the first half of this year, arguing it is a necessary step to try to start a peace process in the Middle East.
Luis Montenegro told parliament on Friday that he defends the so-called two-state solution (Israel and Palestine), but the Portuguese government “does not quite take the same position” as Pedro Sanchez.
Social Democrat Luis Montenegro will be received this afternoon by Socialist Pedro Sánchez in Moncloa, the seat of the Spanish government, and is the only item on the agenda of the Prime Minister’s official visit to Madrid.
Pedro Sánchez publicly congratulated Luis Montenegro on April 5, a few days after the new prime minister took office and took office, and said the two countries would continue to work together as “strategic partners and allies.”
“Portugal is a brotherly country with deep historical ties of cooperation and friendship. We will continue to work together as strategic partners and allies,” Pedro Sanchez wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter), in a message in which he said he had spoken with Montenegro by phone.
The Prime Minister of Portugal on the same day, and also on the social network X, said that he wanted to strengthen the alliance between the two countries, “thinking about the well-being” of both peoples.
“Thank you, Pedro Sánchez, for your words of congratulations and your willingness to continue the historical relations of friendship and cooperation between our countries,” wrote Luis Montenegro.