“The European Union still does not know what kind of relationship it should have with China, and we, Portugal, will need to resist future American pressures and, in some way, from Brussels, to limit our relations with China; these pressures will increase, both from Brussels and across the Atlantic, and Portugal must find ways to maintain and develop these relations while resisting pressures,” stated the former Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Speaking at the conference “30 Years of CPLP – What Future in Relations with China?” as part of the “China Sessions” organized by the Scientific and Cultural Center of Macau in Lisbon, the former official discussed the importance of China for the Portuguese economy, the challenges faced by Portuguese-speaking countries in their relationship with the Asian giant, and the evolution of the relationship between the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) and China, highlighting the significance of the Macau Forum.
“Within the CPLP framework, it is mainly through the Macau Forum that China develops bilateral relations with Portuguese-speaking countries, and Portugal, on this platform, wants to do the same as China does, which is to deepen bilateral relationships,” said the ambassador.
Emphasizing the importance of relations between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, Martins da Cruz pointed out the growing influence of Spain in this context and stressed that the CPLP, while useful for all Portuguese-speaking countries, faces several limitations, citing geographical discontinuity, linguistic challenges as many people in Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau, for example, do not speak Portuguese, and “loyalty” to the economic regions in which the countries are situated.
According to the ambassador, Portuguese foreign policy always has three priorities: “Europe, the Atlantic, regardless of who the American Government is, and then the space of the Portuguese language.”
He concluded that “China enters this CPLP equation through the Macau Forum, which is the only international organization in Macau, with the agreement of Portugal, and which is very important for what it represents in our relations with China, but unfortunately is rarely utilized by most Portuguese companies.”
