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

I begin by expressing my gratitude for the warm hospitality with which my Wife and I, as well as my retinue, have been welcomed in Macau. Returning to Macau is for me, more than anything else, a great honour.

This is a visit that naturally causes a feeling of strong emotion, which is not based in any nostalgia for the past. I visit Macau to reassert, unequivocally that, for Portugal, the liaison with China and with this Territory is a strategic priority.

Portugal’s and Macau’s History were interweaved throughout centuries. In 1987, in the first Official Visit to China by a Portuguese Prime Minister, I had the honour to subscribe, on behalf of Portugal, the Joint Luso-Chinese Declaration on the Macau Issue. The main objectives of both countries had come to fruition, and the special nature of this Territory recognized, both in the cultural and historic point of view and in a political and administrative perspective.

It is with enormous pride that I have ascertained this to be a very successful solution. When 15 years have gone by after the transfer of sovereignty and the establishing of the Macau Special Administrative Region, the following success is also being celebrated: Macau’s economic development kept growing, the charter of the Macau residents was ensured and the preservation of the Portuguese cultural presence has been respected and deepened.

The negotiation process itself, especially due to the issue’s complexity and sensibility, was considered exemplary. It allowed projecting in a higher tone Portugal’s name in the Orient, as a country capable of building consensus and bridges between cultures. It equally allowed demonstrating China’s opening to the World and its wish for a fraternal cooperation with Portugal.

Macau’s transition equally offset the beginning of a new stage in the relations with China, based upon mutual trust and respect. These values have been consolidated, since 2005, in a Global Strategic Partnership. Macau is comprised in a region with enormous potential and can assume itself as a privileged platform for a greater proximity of Portugal with Asia and, particularly, with China.

China itself recognizes this, conferring on it a central role as a platform for interchange and cooperation between China and the Portuguese Language Countries, through a Forum for Economic and Commercial Cooperation between China and the countries that so express themselves, better known as the “Macau Forum”, with its Standing Secretariat headquartered here.

Mister Chief Executive,

I have always placed great trust in Macau’s potential. In 1992, during the Portuguese Presidency of the European Communities, when I was exercising the office of Prime Minister, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between Macau and the European Economic Community was signed.

The strategic vision of Macau’s potential also includes, nowadays, the added value of the Portuguese language, an important asset shared by millions of human beings. Its economic and international value is now unquestionable, as well as its assertion as a language of culture, science and entrepreneurialism. The growing interest for Portuguese language studies in Macau, as in the whole of China, is an expressive sign of what I have just stated.

To deepen the Portuguese presence in this Special Administrative Region is the wish of both countries. It is thus necessary that a greater dynamism exists, on both sides, in economic and entrepreneurial contacts, in cultural relations, in tourist flows and in the relationship amongst citizens.

Mister Chief Executive,

Friendship between both our peoples has been a fact for over five centuries. One of the 24 monuments with Portuguese origin outside national territory and classified by UNESCO as World Heritage is located in Macau. This is a region which shall always have special links with Portugal, honouring the feelings between the Portuguese and the nationals of Macau.

Politically, it is our duty to invest in the strengthening of all the features of Portugal’s relations with this Region and with China. It was in this spirit that we endeavoured to include political, economic, cultural, academic and scientific components in this visit to Macau.

With this belief I ask you all to join me in a toast to the health of the Chief Executive, Chui Sai On, and to the deepening of the links between Portugal and the Macau Region.

Thank you very much.