Juan David Latorre
The Portuguese Embassy celebrated last Monday the Day of Portugal, of Camões and of the Portuguese Communities at the residence of Ambassador João Mira Gomes, with a large attendance of friends and members of the Portuguese community in Madrid.
Ambassador João Mira Gomes wished to highlight above all the excellent state of relations between Spain and Portugal. “I think, he said, that it is very appropriate to have our Portuguese Minister of Economy and the Sea, António Costa Silva, with us today, because if there is a particularly intense area of cooperation between Portugal and Spain, it is the economy. Moreover, the figures in this area in the relations between our two countries are fantastic because we are growing in double digits in this area, in exports from Portugal to Spain. We are also doing it in tourism, with more Spanish tourists visiting Portugal.”
“But there is also another area that is not of this Ministry in which we are also growing and which is very important for the future of the two countries, the Portuguese ambassador continued, which is the teaching of Portuguese in Spanish schools and the teaching of Spanish in Portuguese schools.”
The ambassador stressed that relations between the governments of the two countries are so good that any Portuguese government minister could have attended the reception and the good times for bilateral relations in any sector could be highlighted, “as they are also with the governments of the Autonomous Communities, and also, of course between the two heads of state”.
And what is even better is that no matter the political colour in Lisbon or in Madrid,” concluded João Mira Gomes, “we always have good relations. Right now we have excellent relations, which are going through some of the best moments in history”.
The event was attended by a large audience, including the former Prime Minister of Portugal, José Manuel Durao Barroso; the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Rodríguez Almeida; the President of the Assembly of Madrid, María Eugenia Carballedo; the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Pascual Navarro Ríos; the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Luis Cuesta; the Director of the Coordination Office for the Spanish Presidency of the European Union, Aurora Mejía; and the Ambassadors’ Introducer, María Sebastián de Erice, among other Spanish diplomats.
Businessmen and other members of Spanish civil society were also present, along with the ambassadors of Bosnia&Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Germany, Japan, Ireland, Cyprus, Honduras, Luxembourg and Slovakia, among others.
