The foreign minister defended on Monday that the Portuguese position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine is clear and that the statements of the president of Brazil about the conflict do not embarrass Portugal.
“It’s not embarrassing at all. How can we be ashamed of what other people’s views are? We could be ashamed of our own views. But our views are clear”said Gomes Cravinho, adding that the statements of the Brazilian head of state are not surprising.
“The realization that Portuguese foreign policy and Brazilian foreign policy are not identical comes as no surprise to anyone”said the foreign minister.
When asked whether it makes sense to consider possible changes to the program of Lula da Silva’s visit, namely during the official ceremonies of April 25 – taking into account the way the President of Brazil has expressed his position on the conflict in Ukraine expressed – replied the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that “Portuguese foreign policy is not compatible with positions of” political-partisan nature.
“We have a foreign policy that is national. We have a very important tradition of convergence between major parties in foreign policy and we will not allow that tradition to be broken by issues of a cyclical political-partisan nature”said Gomes Cravinho.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, at the end of a visit to the People’s Republic of China on Saturday, defended that the United States should stop “encouraging war” in Ukraine and that the European Union should “start talking about peace”.
“The United States must stop encouraging war and start talking about peace, the European Union must start talking about peace”the Brazilian head of state told journalists in Beijing before leaving for the United Arab Emirates.
For the Portuguese Foreign Minister, it is necessary “not to be confused” between what are relations between states, referring to Portugal and Brazil, emphasizing that “they are deep relations” and with “200 years” and that they have already gone through “immense moments of great diversity and what is the current business cycle”.
Gomes Cravinho stressed that Portugal’s position on the war in Ukraine “leaves no room for ambiguity”, and admitted that issues related to Russia’s invasion will be discussed with the Brazilian head of state.
The Portuguese Position [sobre a Ucrânia] is very clear and on the position of the President of Brazil, we will certainly have the opportunity to hear President Lula in the right context: in the meeting with the President of the Republic (Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa), in the meeting with the Prime Minister [António Costa] and in the many moments of your visit and we make no drama of it”said Gomes Cravinho.
Regarding former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s eventual trip to Portugal, the foreign minister said he has no official information, stressing that the Portuguese state has no obligations in terms of protocol regarding former heads of state.
“The Portuguese State has no obligation whatsoever towards a President of the Republic in previous circumstances. I have no information about the arrival of former President Bolsonaro other than what has been revealed in the media”said João Gomes Cravinho.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs spoke to journalists on the margins of the start of the work of the Portugal-Germany Forum, on the theme: Digitization: global and bilateral perspective.
The meeting will take place today at the Higher Institute for Economics and Management (ISEG) in Lisbon and will be attended by Anna Luhrmann, Minister for European Affairs and Climate of the German Government.
Source: DN
