Welcome to the page of the State Visit to Czech Republic

Mister President, Excellency,
Madam Livia Klausova,
Honourable Authorities,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I wish to thank Your Excellency, Mister President, for the very kind words which you saw fit to address me, for which I feel extremely honoured, and for the warm welcome which has been dispensed to me and my Wife, and to the delegation accompanying us, in our Official Visit to the Czech Republic.

We are particularly pleased to find ourselves in this Country to which European History and democracy owe so much. And it is with great pleasure that I have the opportunity to renew a personal relationship of many years with Your Excellency.

Mister President,

In spite of the geographical distance, the friendly relations that link Portugal and the territory that corresponds, in our days, to the Czech Republic, have secular roots, and there are many examples of contacts involving distinguished figures in the History of our two countries.

This ancient friendship asserts itself, today, in the several fields on which our bilateral relationship is based and through a close cooperation within the framework of the Atlantic Alliance and the European Union.

Portugal supported, since the very beginning, the adhesion of the Czech Republic to the Atlantic Alliance and to the European Union. We did so conscious, as dictated by our own experience, of the importance of that adhesion for the consolidation of democracy, of freedom and of the Rule of Law, an objective for which the Czech people so courageously battled. We did so, equally, certain of the contribution of the Czech Republic towards the building of a stronger and more cohesive Europe.

Portugal and the Czech Republic are two countries with a similar size and which frequently have converging concerns. It is important that we know how to take full advantage of this harmony in the several fields of our relationship, including, to start with, the framework of the European Union.

A European Union that can now avail itself of a new Treaty, the Treaty of Lisbon and, with it, new instruments of assertiveness. But, as Your Excellency pointed out in the European Parliament, on the occasion of the Czech Presidency of the European Union, “an institutional agreement is not in itself an objective, but a tool to reach the real objectives”.

We share with the Czech Republic the belief in a European Union where decisions are taken with respect for the opinions of all its members.

A belief, as well, in a European Union opened up to the world, which rejects all protectionist trends and which knows how to recognize in the strengthening of transatlantic bonds an additional factor for the assertion of the values from which it originates.

Mister President,

The excellence of the political relations between our two countries is not comparable with the modesty that characterizes our economic and trading relationship. The difficult moments in which we live must be viewed as a challenge to our capability to identify and take advantage of the opportunities which we are offered.

Portugal has skills available in areas such as the building of infrastructures, renewable energies, or telecommunications and information technologies, which meet the development strategies defined by the Czech Republic, the same being true with the Czech Republic relative to Portugal.

Portuguese entrepreneurs are beginning to invest – at times with renowned success – in a European region for which the Czech Republic is a relevant platform, whilst Portugal has a strong presence in regions of interest to Czech entrepreneurs, such as Africa and Latin America, where we benefit from friendly relations, specifically in Portuguese speaking countries, such as Brazil, Angola or Mozambique.

We should thus invest in an improved dissemination of our respective products, in the increase in trading exchange, and in a deepening of entrepreneurial cooperation that may lead to the setting up of partnerships with capacity for international projection.

This is the aim of the entrepreneurial delegation which is accompanying me on this Visit and of the programme they will accomplish here, including the Seminar that we will both open tomorrow.

The success of the cooperation between our two countries will depend, equally, upon the mutual knowledge of their geographical, human and cultural realities.

Prague is one of the tourist destinations preferred by the Portuguese and Portugal is, increasingly, a preferred tourist destination for the Czechs. On the other hand there exists today a large community of Portuguese students attending courses in Czech Universities. These are factors that promote even closer bonds between our peoples and countries.

Also contributing towards the relationship is the significant number of Czech university students interested in the study of Portuguese language and culture, due not only to cultural curiosity and concern, but equally in recognition of the economic and professional value of an idiom which is the third European language in the world, spoken by more than 250 million people, spread over the five continents.

I shall thus be very pleased when, tomorrow, I meet some of those students, in the prestigious Charles University with which Your Excellency, Mister President, is well acquainted.

It is thus, confident in the strengthening of the deep friendship that links our two countries, that I ask you all to join me in a toast to the health and personal happiness of President Vaclav Klaus and his Wife, to the prosperity of the gallant People of the Czech Republic and to the future of the relations between our two Countries.

Thank you very much