The Prime Minister, António Costa, will travel to New York between the 19th and 22nd to participate for the second time since leading the Portuguese executive at the United Nations General Assembly.
According to a note from the Prime Minister’s office released this Tuesday, António Costa is expected to address the 77th United Nations General Assembly on the 22nd and then return to Lisbon.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly for the first time, on September 20, 2017, the Prime Minister emphasized that Portugal’s foreign policy priorities are those defined by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, in an intervention in which he also emphasized the country’s “solemn commitment” to multilateralism.
In the same speech, António Costa defended the existence of a Security Council reform, extending it to countries such as Brazil and India, and reiterated the intention that Portuguese should be one of the official languages of the United Nations.
“I would like to take this opportunity to mention the importance of the Portuguese language, which will be confirmed this Tuesday as a communication tool with a global dimension. By the middle of this century, Portuguese will have almost 400 million speakers, which are justification is elevation to official language in various international organizations. Adopting Portuguese as the official language of the United Nations remains a common goal of CPLP member states,” said the prime minister.
At the political level, António Costa also called for the reform of the Security Council “to ensure greater representation in today’s world”.
“The African continent cannot help but have a permanent presence, and Brazil and India are two unavoidable examples. On the other hand, the complexity of the global problems we face this Tuesday makes it necessary to build partnerships, in which not only states, but also civil society organisations, international financial institutions, public and private entities,” he claimed.
Another point of the intervention was to emphasize Portugal’s commitment to the goal of the universal abolition of the death penalty, in a speech in which he also defended the position that preserving the planet is to cultivate peace in the world .
Source: DN
