The intention is to bring the academy, former diplomats and “people without official functions” together at one table. All to discuss issues of foreign policy and strategic thinking for two days (coming Friday and Saturday at Casa de Santa Maria in Cascais).
“Foreign policy is very important and should not be done only by those at the State Department or the government,” the president of the organization – the Institute for the Promotion of Latin America and the Caribbean (IPDAL) – begins, Paulo Snows . “What we want to do is bring several people together here, at the same table, so that in the end we can outline the priorities in this area and at the same time understand the key axes of intervention”explains DN, adding that “at the end of these two days a Policy document [um guião de orientações, no fundo] presenting the main conclusions of this debate”. It is, as the organization states in the program delivered to the speakers – and to which the DN had access – “a contribution from civil society” on this. During the I First Meeting on Foreign Policy and Strategic Thinking different faces from different sectors of civil society will be present – from analysts to academics, including leaders of parties with parliamentary seats – and, on the second day of the event (29), young people previously organization gets its selected podium, which will conduct a debate similar to the day before.
Nevertheless, interventions are anonymized in the document, as all sessions (11 in total) take place behind closed doors as a way to protect speakers and protect statements.
This is the first initiative of its kind to be promoted by IPDAL, but the intention has been around for a while. However, the context of the war in Ukraine combined with the “geostrategic situation” of the energy crisis accelerated the realization of the meeting. “The country and Europe are going through a phase with more and more external problems affecting domestic politics. noIt is not only thinking outside and passing, but also inside’, justifies Paulo Neves.
The meeting will also serve to “highlight Portugal’s position as a country that is not peripheral and isolated from the rest of Europe,” said the former Social Democratic deputy, now IPDAL chairman.
Not least because, he believes, “Portugal may not have the decision-making power of other nations in an international context, but it does have the power to exert influence: we have a Portuguese President of the European Commission and a Secretary- general of the UN [Durão Barroso e António Guterres, respetivamente]”. Therefore, “We have to put aside the idea that Portugal is isolated and far from the rest of Europe, because it is not and cannot play an important role in the European future as in the case of the gas pipeline.”
In summary, Paulo Neves is open to “listening to others” in what he hopes is “a symbiosis between all those who study and think about the external image of the country. Very useful”.
Source: DN
