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

We are particularly pleased and deeply moved to welcome you, Madam President, to this Visit to Portugal, on the day we celebrate the National Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities.

Allow me to express, Madam President, on behalf of all the people of Portugal, how deeply our feelings run due to Your Excellency having accepted my invitation to visit Portugal on this date.

The friendship and the historic bonds that bring our countries together enjoy today a vitality that we should be proud of. The relationship between Brazil and Portugal has a fundamental strategic value, especially at the current time when so many challenges are placed before us, from both sides of the Atlantic.

The deep links that exist between our Peoples and Countries are rooted on a common past, are strengthened in a shared present and are projected into a future of expectations we have the responsibility to jointly pursue.

Brazil, more than a country of the future is, already today, an incontrovertible current worldwide reference.

It is the primary economic power in Latin America and occupies a prominent position in the ranking of the largest world economies. This is the fruit of many years of work, of long term investment, the result of deep economic reforms and of the option for the development of social policies that allowed millions of Brazilians to significantly improve their living conditions.

In the midst of the Community of Nations, Brazil, a member of the G20, achieved a prominent position which turns it into a serious candidate to a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. I reiterate Portugal’s support for this candidacy, within the framework of the needed reform of that body of the United Nations.

It is also this unique position that led Brazil to be awarded the organization of the 2014 World Soccer Championship and of the 2016 Olympic Games.

It was also with great pleasure that we welcomed, in Lisbon, the news that a Brazilian national will be the next Director General of the World Trade Organization, a candidacy which we have unconditionally supported from the very first.

Madam President,

Brazil knows that it has in Portugal a special friend in the European Union. It was not by chance that it was during the Portuguese Presidency, in July 2007, that the first summit between Brazil and the European Union took place. These summits are, nowadays, an undisputable marker of the Strategic Partnership between Brazil and Europe.

We jointly founded CPLP (Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries), a common area based upon the language of Camões. We are today more than 240 million Portuguese speakers. Spoken Portuguese, a truly growing linguistic power, must be, more than a historic marker, a dynamism that projects us into the future. It is a responsibility and a commitment that we have the duty to assume. Quoting Fernando Pessoa, “This language, our language, is a common Nation for all those who speak Portuguese”.

I am pleased that the XI Luso-Brazilian Summit took place this afternoon, continuing the Heads of State dialogue that became institutionalized in 1991.

Enthusiastically, we celebrated the Year of Brazil in Portugal and the Year of Portugal in Brazil, which symbolically closes today, here in Lisbon. It was a high moment in the relations between our two Peoples and Countries, which greatly contributed towards strengthening the dynamics of our bilateral relations and to renew the bonds that link us.

Madam President,

The Brazilian market is strategic for the internationalization of the Portuguese economy, at a time when growth and creation of employment must be in the centre of the priorities of our political decision takers. The battle for sustained development is not only fought in the field of constraint of public deficit. On the contrary, it must be complemented by an agenda for growth guided towards the production of negotiable goods, as I have been emphasizing for long and that Europe now seems to recognize.

Brazil is one of the main destinations of Portuguese corporations, both in terms of investment and in exports. Amongst the most diverse sectors of economic activity, Portuguese entrepreneurs believe in Brazil and in its future, as well as, I am certain, Brazilian entrepreneurs believe in Portugal.

Our students, researchers, artists and writers have Brazil in their horizons. And the same is true for Brazilian students and writers.

We have this “Fado” (destiny) in common, this “binding line” mentioned by Miguel Torga. We perceived this fraternal reflection due to the regularity of the pendulum movement, in the two senses, between both our countries: now the Portuguese head for Brazil, now the Brazilians arrive in Portugal.

Never a Brazilian shall be considered as a foreigner in Portugal or a Portuguese a foreigner in Brazil. In both countries there exist organized and dynamic communities, which are factors of reference in the economic, social and cultural life in Brazil and in Portugal.

Madam President,

I firmly believe that Portugal and Brazil have a relevant word to impart in the construction of a better world, fairer and with greater solidarity.

I am firmly convinced that the History of our two countries is and will be written in common.

For this reason, in my name and in that of my wife, I ask you all to join me in a toast to the health and personal happiness of President Dilma Rousseff, to the prosperity of the fraternal People of Brazil and to the future of the relations between our two Countries.

Thank you very much