On our arrival from Cadiz, I am very pleased to welcome Your Excellency, Mister President, on this visit to Portugal, as Head of State of a friendly Country, to which we are linked by bonds of deep friendship, based on a secular conviviality and on a similarity of objectives as to the future we require for our bilateral relations.

Many are the signs of Portuguese presence in Peru, such as the Convent of Sao Francisco, in Cuzco, founded by a Portuguese, Friar Peter of Portugal, or of the permanence, amongst the inhabitants of the current city of Amalia de Celendin, of surnames with Portuguese origins - Pereira, Silva, Ribeiro or Moreira – bringing out, still today, the role of the Portuguese in its foundation.

Our two countries signed, in Washington, in 1853, a Treaty of Trade and Shipping, with the objective to “extend and consolidate the trading relations” between Peru and Portugal. The objective of this Treaty continues fully valid, but it must however be recognized that we are still far from what we are jointly able to achieve in the economic and trading areas.

Latin America is, for us, a priority and Peru is, doubtlessly, an unconvertible partner for Portugal. I note, with satisfaction, the increase in latter years, of the Portuguese entrepreneurial presence in Peru, especially in the field of civil construction and the pharmaceutical industry.

Your Excellency’s visit to Portugal is a sign of the political goodwill to provide a further impulse in our bilateral relationship.

I am very gratified with the agreements that will be signed later on today, which are a strong and material signal of the new dynamics of our relationship.

I am convinced that the bilateral agreement to avoid double taxation, which will be signed this afternoon, will directly influence the increase in investments between both sides of the Atlantic.

There is yet a long way to go, however, a path filled with opportunities, from which we must do our best to bring us the inherent benefits.

Allow me, Mister President, to express my appreciation for the personal drive that Your Excellency has placed upon the inclusion of Portugal in the schedule of “high alert” countries in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products.

In spite of the difficulties which we are going through nowadays, within an extremely fragile economic and financial environment, multiple opportunities are on offer for the strengthening of the relations between Portugal and Peru. It is our responsibility to identify and take advantage of such opportunities. I believe, very sincerely, that we have good reasons to optimistically view the future of our relationship.

And in this spirit I ask you all to join me in a toast to the health of President Ollanta Humala, to the prosperity of the friendly People of Peru, and to the future of the relations between our two countries

Thank you very much