Welcome to the page of the State Visit to Indonesia

It is, for me, a great honour to be in such an inspiring place as the National Museum of Indonesia, side by side with so many treasures from the vast cultural heritage of this great country.

About 500 years ago Indonesia witnessed the arrival of the first Portuguese expedition. It was indeed the first time that a European people ventured so far and came across the peoples of these islands.

Many Portuguese settled here, developing trade and establishing cooperation links which were found to be mutually profitable.

For more than a century, Portuguese vessels systematically crossed the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, bridging East and West with regular trade. The global village, which is so often mentioned today, was born from that meeting of peoples and cultures.

Five centuries ago Portugal was, in fact, the western ambassador to these lands. Portuguese navigators, traders and missionaries brought to the local population some knowledge of Europe. At the same time, they told Europeans all about Indonesia and about a great part of the world that was known to the West only through some more or less fantasised tales. As our Poet wrote, with justified pride, Portugal gave “new worlds to the World”.

Such a long and intense contact would necessarily leave deep impressions and extensive documental evidence.

Some of those impressions are still visible in the arts, religious traditions and music, in some of the islands, not to mention the language, where a number of words derived from the Portuguese can be found, such as escola, igreja, natal, mesa, sapato, bola, and so many others.

The Exhibition that we inaugurate today provides excellent evidence of the capacity that the authorities, both Indonesian and Portuguese, have demonstrated for creating the essential logistic conditions to accomplish such major trade.

We are before a real lesson in History.

But we are, also, before a lesson for the future. Two societies and two States that knew how to cultivate, in the past, such strong ties, have good reason to believe in the success of their bilateral relations.

One of the intentions of this State Visit to Indonesia is to bring greater awareness of what the modern Portugal is, a country which is today a pioneer in terms of scientific and technological innovation, in areas that, I believe, offer great potential for the strengthening of the long-established relationship between Portugal and Indonesia.

The building of a strong, dynamic and ambitious relationship that is geared towards the future is the greatest tribute we can pay to the long past of friendship between our countries and peoples.

It was precisely in the light of their example and their contribution for a closer bilateral relationship between Portugal and Indonesia, that I made the decision to honour, within the framework of this visit, two persons:

- His Excellency the former Minister of Foreign Affairs for Indonesia, Mr. Alwi Shihab – who will receive the Grã-Cruz da Ordem do Mérito and the Honorary Consul of Indonesia in the city of Oporto, Mr. Luciano Coelho da Silva – who will receive the Comenda da Ordem do Mérito. So, I would like to call them to the stage, to receive their insignias.