The Diplomat
“The current geopolitical situation gives us a great opportunity thanks to our geographical situation,” said the Portuguese Minister of Science and Technology, Elvira Fortunato, during the reception hosted by Ambassador Joao Mira-Gomes to commemorate the Day of Portugal, Camoens and the Portuguese Communities.
The minister held a meeting the previous day with her Spanish counterpart, Diana Morant, to discuss the joint initiatives of the two countries within the Strategic Project for Aerospace Recovery and Economic Transformation (PERTE). Within this framework, Spain and Portugal will promote the Atlantic Constellation, an Earth observation programme that will have a constellation of small satellites aimed at observing coastal areas to improve the management of natural, marine and coastal resources.
For his part, Ambassador Mira-Gomes, who described the war in Ukraine as “an illegal, illegitimate, unjustified and unprovoked aggression by Russia”, agreed with the minister’s words and stressed that “this is the time for the Iberian Peninsula, since we are collaborating in very intense strategic cooperation projects, not only at the level of governments but also at the level of autonomous communities”.
Among these projects, he also cited the development of the Iberian Energy Storage Research Centre, which will be located in Cáceres and will be equipped with state-of-the-art laboratories to develop the entire energy storage cycle.
Mira Gomes added that both countries are already working on the organisation of the next bilateral summit, to be held next autumn in Portugal.
The reception was attended by numerous representatives of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, businessmen and foreign diplomats accredited in Spain, who celebrated the anniversary of the ‘prince of the poets of his time’, as the epitaph of the author of ‘The Lusiads’, Luis Vaz de Camoens, says.
