China.org: This year 2009, Portugal and China have celebrated the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. What is the situation nowadays of the bilateral relations between both countries? In which aspects the sino-portuguese relations registered the most satisfactory achievements?
Ambassador: These thirty years could be divided in two parts: during the first, both China and Portugal concentrated themselves in negotiating the handover of Macau to the Chinese administration, to put an end to that situation left by history. I would say that this transition went on very smoothly, in a very constructive spirit and atmosphere, and thus paved the way for a new era of relations of friendship and cooperation in the second half of that period, to sum it up briefly. We achieved that smooth transition and then we developed our relation into a global strategic partnership, which was established in 2005 during the visit of Premier Wen Jiabao to Portugal. And that strategic partnership consolidated our relations at different levels: not only at the political and economical level but also in the fields of science and technology, justice, health, culture, language and education. In all these different areas we established relations of cooperation and we have developed, and that is very important, a political dialogue at the highest level of both governments. Agreements, protocols, and memorandums of understanding were then signed contemplating all these different areas. Our economic and trade relations, specially, developed tremendously. I remember (because I was a witness to the ceremony) when Premier Wen Jiabao and our Prime Minister Sócrates pledged that the trade between our two countries should increase two fold in the next three years. We have achieved that objective even earlier, though with a strong unbalance in favor of China´s exports because Portugal, like practically all countries in Europe, keeps a heavy bilateral trade deficit with China. But, nevertheless, we have developed very significantly mutually beneficial relations in different fields and there is still a huge potential to tap.
