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

I am very grateful and deeply touched by Your Excellency’s words, Mister President, and for the warm welcome with which I have been awarded, as well as my Wife and all the Portuguese delegation, in this State Visit to Colombia.

We recall with great affection Your Excellency’s and Mrs. Maria Clemência de Santos recent Visit to Portugal, which greatly honoured us and which we all keep in mind with much regard.

I do not believe that we have ever witnessed, between our two countries, as in recent times, such an intense prevalence of contacts between political figures, persons of culture and entrepreneurs. I would even dare say that Colombia “is in fashion” in Portugal, and that Portugal “is in fashion” in Colombia.

It was in this spirit and with great pleasure that I accepted Your Excellency’s invitation to visit Colombia and to open the Bogotá Book Fair this year, in which Portugal is the invited country. This participation is a great honour for us and, of this I am certain, will be a fundamental marker in the reinforcement of the cultural relations between our two countries, which have anyway already witnessed another high mark: the setting up, in the University of the Andes, of the Fernando Pessoa Chair, one of the most relevant Portuguese poets.

Mister President,

We look towards Colombia as a model country in Latin America, due above all because it has known how to handle the great challenges of democratic consolidation, economic development and social justice.

With a thriving and structured economy, an open policy towards foreign investment, a diversified array of political and economic relations with other countries, all of this in addition to an enviable geographic situation, Colombia stands out in the new millennium as an extremely attractive destination and an excellent platform for casting into other Latin American markets.

In its turn, Portugal is a stable and consolidated democracy. It has a modern and open economy, equipped with excellent infrastructures and with a highly qualified human potential. It has also been, for decades, a member State of the European Union.

In short, we are a country that opens its doors to the initiative of Colombian entrepreneurs who may, through it, find new means of access to the gigantic European single market and to other markets that, as a result of its History, Portugal knows well and with which it maintains privileged bonds of cooperation and friendship.

This is, as we are well aware, a time of great challenges both in Portugal and in Europe. In the last two years Portugal has been carrying out an important effort in macroeconomic and financial adjustment. We have also achieved an ambitious and demanding set of structural reforms driven to increase the flexibility and the competitive capability of our economy.

It is thus with enormous satisfaction that I register the growing interest in Colombia of Portuguese companies and investors. A visible sign of this reality is the expressive entrepreneurial delegation that has accompanied me on this Visit. Tomorrow we will have the honour to close the Economic and Entrepreneurial Seminar which has been held for two days between entrepreneurs and investors from both our countries.

I am extremely pleased that the Multiparty Trade Agreement, between the European Union, Colombia and Peru has now been approved. I am certain that we will all soon feel the benefits arising out of the materialization of this project.

Mister President,

Our two peoples and our countries are linked by centuries’ old bonds. However, it is in the recent past, in our current days, that the History of our relationship is becoming alive with examples that so particularly provide us with incitement and give us hope for the future.

I allow myself, Mister President, to quote Gabriel Garcia Marquez when he stated: “All I need is to open the newspapers to find out that extraordinary things happen daily amongst us”. We are tempted to say that the great Colombian author appeared to be talking about the relationship between his country and Portugal.

We must take advantage of the current dynamism to enrich even further our relationship with a strengthened cooperation in areas such as new information technologies, renewable energies, building of infrastructures or tourism.

Mister President,

In the global world in which we live today, the phenomenon of regional integration gains ever greater weight. Latin America is not alien to this dynamism.

The Pacific Alliance, which will shortly be presided by Colombia, is a primary mark in the future of the trading relationships between the countries it comprises and the rest of the World. Portugal has already requested its admission as an observing member. I thus take this opportunity to express my thanks for the support given by Colombia to our request.

Such as in Lisbon, a few months ago, I want to express my most sincere wishes that the peace process now under way, in which Your Excellency is the great protagonist, reaches a successful end. We are all aware that peace and stability are crucial components in the consolidation of the rule of law in a democratic State, and in the strengthening of Colombia’s position in this region and in the World.

Mister President,

It is with this spirit of fraternal friendship that I would like to reiterate my conviction that the relations between our two countries will become more than ever stronger. I thus ask you all to join me in a toast to Your Excellency, Mister President, and to Mrs. Maria Clemencia de Santos, to the peace and prosperity of the People of Colombia and to the future of the Luso-Colombian friendship.

Thank you very much