Joint Press Statement of EAM, Dr. S. Jaishankar with João Cravinho Foreign Minister of Portugal

External Affairs

Joint Press Statement of EAM, Dr. S. Jaishankar with João Cravinho Foreign Minister of Portugal

Let me join Minister Cravinho in saying what a great pleasure it is to have our discussions, our talks today. We've actually known each other, I think, for about 10 years now. And it's really good to be here and use this opportunity to (inaudible) our bilateral cooperation and also discuss regional and global issues.

This morning, actually, before I came here, I visited the assembly of the Republic. I called on my old friend, President Augusto Santos Silva. We had a discussion on our political and parliamentary exchanges that I value very much.

Today, in our own meeting, we've had a very, very detailed assessment of our bilateral partnership. We see a lot of new energy and activities across several sectors. Trade and investment is clearly a strong driving force. Indian companies like Indian IT companies, especially, have made their mark in Portugal. I was also happy to see that Amul, which is our main milk and dairy company, is the first Indian regional sponsor of the Portuguese National Football team.

We are going to ask our Joint Economic Committee to follow up on some of our discussions and see what more we could be doing in health, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy. We also discussed defense cooperation, startups, innovation as well. There was some talk between us on direct air connectivity, because that is today a missing piece in the relationship. We're very confident that our exchanges would expand once we can progress on that. And both of us put a lot of weight on development of tourism, and that too would grow with direct air connectivity.

As the Minister mentioned, we spoke about cultural cooperation, about the maritime heritage complex in Lothal, which we are developing in collaboration with Portugal. I hope to visit your museum later on my visit. There was some discussion on how we could work trilaterally in third countries, because both of us have some history of doing development partnerships, capacity building, education, health. So to the extent we can pool our resources and our experience and our relationships here. I think we will be able to do more good in an efficient way.

We reviewed the implementation on the Agreement of the recruitment of Indian citizens to work in Portugal. We have agreed on a standard operating procedure for that, and there will be a pilot project to take it forward. We also discussed youth mobility and mutual recognition of academic qualifications. There was also an understanding that we would set up a consular dialogue mechanism, and we'd be happy to come here to Portugal for the first meeting of that.

In the period after this press interaction, we will be talking more on regional, global, and multilateral issues. I do want to say that we have always regarded Portugal as one of our key partners in the European Union. The first ever India-EU Summit was actually held in 2000 under the Portuguese presidency. And the first ever India-EU at a 27 leadership Summit was also held in 2021 under the Portuguese presidency. It had to be virtual at that time because of the COVID. So we count very much on Portuguese support for our FTA negotiations with the EU that is underway.

I will be briefing the Minister on India's G20 presidency, which has seen some progress on key global challenges like SDG realization, green development, digital public infrastructure, sustainable lifestyle, food security, and women-led development. As he pointed out, we will definitely be talking about what we call West Asia. I think you folks call it Middle East. The conflict in Ukraine, developments in the Indo-Pacific; I think these are all subjects that will be on our agenda.

We look forward to marking in 2025 the establishment of 50 years, re-establishment of our diplomatic relations.



And finally, I want to say that we are very proud of the Indian diaspora in Portugal. We believe that they contribute very substantially to your growth and progress. I had an opportunity to meet members of the diaspora today. I will be talking to them in greater numbers tomorrow. I hope, Minister, you can join me on that occasion.

I also hope to call on Prime Minister Antonio Costa later today. He has always provided guidance and motivation for us to enter this new phase of our ties. So I look forward very much to the meeting. So all in all, I would say that we are two countries with a long-standing, historical bilateral relationship. And our task is to move it into a more modern and multifaceted incarnation. I think today we have made some progress in that regard.

I thank you, Minister, once again for your warm welcome, for your generous hospitality.

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