Welcome to the page of the Official Visit to Chile

Madam President, Excellency
Honourable Authorities
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very grateful, Madam President, for the kind words that Your Excellency has just addressed us, and for the warm welcome with which you have honoured me, my wife and the members of the deputation that accompanied me on this visit to Chile.

I was very pleased to accept Your Excellency’s prestigious invitation to visit Chile, a Country which today is a model for many others, due to its having known how to face the challenges of democratic consolidation and of social and economic development.

A Country to which Portugal is linked by centuries’ old bonds.

To recall the History of this relationship is obviously to speak of Fernão de Magalhães, whose name marks today that piece of Chilean land where the Atlantic meets the Pacific.

But it is also to recall that Portugal was the first country to recognize, in 1821, the then young Chilean State. Or, more recently, that it was in Portugal that Gabriela Mistral served as a diplomat and that it was Portugal that cared so much for her, the first Chilean citizen awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

But the past will be of little value if, based upon it, we cannot construe a valid relationship for the future.

The attachment to democratic values and the respect for human rights, the belief in the virtues of a market economy which does not forgo the necessary social cohesion and equitableness, the defence of multilateralism and of regional integration as factors of development, are all features that bring us together.

The relations between Chile and Portugal in the last decades have been marked by an interchange of high level contacts and visits, which have resulted in a great variety of bilateral agreements.

Additional efforts should however be endeavoured in order to take better advantage of the large potential deriving from the affinities and good political relations between our two countries.

With a powerful and healthy economy, a significant degree of social development, an open policy towards foreign investment, a diversified combination of political and economic relations with other countries, in addition to its enviable geographical situation, Chile is outstanding as an attractive destination, and an excellent platform for entering the Latin American, Asian and Pacific markets.

In itself, Portugal is today a modern and stable nation, an open economy, endowed with excellent infrastructures, a Member-state of the European union, in short, a country that opens its doors to the initiative of Chilean entrepreneurs who may find there new accesses to the gigantic European, and other, markets which Portugal, as a result of its History, is well acquainted with.

It is thus high time to make a serious endeavour in the increase of trading and investment flows between our two countries.

It is the time, as well, to enrich our relationship with strengthened cooperation in areas such as new information technologies, renewable energies, infrastructure construction or tourism, areas of enormous potential which only await the entrepreneurial capacity of the Portuguese and the Chileans in order to be developed.

The entrepreneurial deputation which accompanied me in this official visit to Chile is determined to establish and deepen partnerships and explore new business opportunities.

Excellency,

Dialogue and cooperation between regional areas are priorities of external affairs common to our countries. During the second half of 2007, Portugal has presided at the Council of the European Union and, along the lines it has always followed, will do all in its power to emphasize the importance of the relations between the European Union and Latin America, since we sincerely believe that this is the answer to the best interests of both Europeans and Latin Americans.

The relationship between the EU and Chile is based upon an extremely comprehensive Agreement, which aims to promote not just economic relations but also a political dialogue. A dialogue with specific examples, which prove the peculiarity of the bonds which link us, such as Chile’s participation in the ALTHEA Operation, which the EU is carrying out in Bosnia-Herzegovina and for which I want, today, to publicly signify my gratitude.

Madam President,

Your Excellency will welcome, in the next few days, another Iberian American Summit Meeting. We are also facing, here, an initiative which aims the approximation between regions, in this case, bonded by very particular affinities.

On this occasion I wish to emphasize the relevance of the topic that Your Excellency, Madam President, has chosen for this year’s discussion: social inclusiveness.

Fighting for inclusiveness will always be an ethical imperative. But, much more than that, it is an act of intelligence. If not inclusive, if not shared, economic and social progress could lead to pressures that, at a later date, could be compromising. This evidence is applicable to each of our countries, but also in international relations. To forget this in the global world in which we live would be a serious strategic error.

Madam President,

It was my understanding that it would be important that this visit should emphasize the much that brings us together, since I believe this affinity is the best basis for the future relations we wish to construe. I have already referred History, values and principles. Purposely, I left for the end something that we share and that defines our identity as peoples: our bonds with the Sea.

I will have the opportunity, tomorrow, to officially open an exhibition subject to the topic “Meeting of the Oceans”, in the Pablo Neruda House-Museum, in Isla Negra.

I did not wish that occasion to be mere protocol. As such, more than the graphic and multimedia illustrations that prove the relevance of the sea in poetry of Portuguese extraction, we will celebrate, with Chilean university students who are graduating in Portuguese language here in Santiago, the Sea as a value shared by Chileans and Portuguese. It will be a moment to listen to the Sea in “Chilean”, to the poetry of Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral and, also, to listen to the Sea in Portuguese, in that language that Gabriela Mistral defined as “… the natural play, or if preferred, the silken slipper which is better for lyrical poetry”.

It will be a moment to celebrate the much that bonds us. It is in this spirit of celebration of all that brings us together that I ask you all to join me in a toast to the health of President Michelle Bachelet, to the friendly People of Chile and to the prosperity of the relations between our two countries.