Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

Royal Highnesses,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a deep satisfaction for my Wife and I to welcome Your Royal Highnesses.

Portugal and the United Kingdom are well known to each other. We have a relationship of many centuries that has been determinant in crucial moments in the History of both our countries.

A relationship based upon the oldest Alliance in force between two sovereign States, consecrated in the 1383 Treaty of London, and reasserted in the 1386 Treaty of Windsor, through which both countries considered being joined, from then on, by “a bond, a friendship and a general and perpetual confederation”.

This proximity, with unique characteristics, between two of the oldest nations of our continent, has known how to resist to the passage of time and to the vicissitudes of historic circumstances, and finds expression, nowadays, in a dynamic and diversified bilateral relation, in the common membership of the Atlantic Alliance and in the sharing of a European destiny within the framework of the European Union.

Bilaterally, the United Kingdom has for long been one of Portugal’s main economic, trading and investment partners. There are many British citizens, as well, that have always chosen Portugal as a privileged holiday destination or who have decided to settle here as residents. And the same is true, today, of the many Portuguese who live and work in the United Kingdom.

It is our duty to take advantage of these many factors that link us to proceed still further in the several areas of our relationship.

Your Highness’s interest in issues connected with climate change, environmental protection and the promotion of clean energies is well known. These are areas in which our countries have converging interests and that offer a great potential for the strengthening of our bilateral cooperation.

Proximity to the sea marked the Portuguese and British way of life very deeply and assumed a determining role in the History of both our countries and also of our relationship. It is in our interest, today, to take advantage of this complicity that the sea wove between Portugal and the United Kingdom and to promote our cooperation in the multiple areas related to the economy of the sea.

I equally hope that the 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games that London is getting ready to host, will be an opportunity to strengthen the economic and entrepreneurial Portuguese presence in the United Kingdom.

Highness,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The World lives times branded by uncertainty. To the challenges placed by the crisis in the international financial system and by the change in the world economic structure, are added the risks arising from a multiplicity of sources of tension and conflict and by the need to answer the legitimate expectations of the peoples who embrace the cause of freedom, namely in our neighbourhood.

It is equally a World filled with threats that are more than ever global and that, for this reason, require collective answers.

This is a reality that requires a cohesive, equitable, strong and credible European Union. A European Union that matches citizens’ expectations and is a source of hope for its people. A European Union open to the World, as has always been emphasized by Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Highnesses,

The United Kingdom is today, as in the past, one of our nearest and most important partners in the European and International stages. We sincerely wish that it so continues. For this reason it is fundamental that we are well aware of the signals we send out, in order that no doubts should exist as to our firm drive in that direction. The visit of Your Royal Highnesses is thus, indisputably, a renewed sign of friendship and trust between old allies.

It is with this spirit of trust and ambition for the future that I ask you all to join me in a toast to the health and happiness of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and of Your Royal Highnesses, and to the strengthening of the secular alliance that links Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Thank you very much.