Beijing, Sept. 9, 2025 (Lusa) - Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said on Tuesday that, during his official visit to China and then Japan, he wants to convey the message that Portugal “is a reliable and trustworthy country” for economic investment.
Luís Montenegro was speaking to journalists before a visit to the Forbidden City in Beijing on the first day of his official trip to China, dominated by institutional meetings and a visit to the Macau Special Administrative Region.
Asked whether he will be able to get the message across to potential Chinese investors despite the programme not including an economic seminar - as was the case on previous visits by then prime minister António Costa in 2016 and the country’s president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in 2019 - Montenegro rejected this view.
"I believe that the statement that this programme is very short can only refer to its duration, because in terms of content, this programme is very extensive," he countered.
According to the Prime Minister, the programme brings together the opportunity for the Portuguese Prime Minister to talk and interact directly with the speaker of parliament of the People’s Republic of China, the country’s president and the prime minister.
"At the same time, the minister of state and foreign affairs, the minister of the economy and the minister for the environment interact bilaterally with their counterparts and also with Chinese businesspeople and companies operating in Portugal and with Portuguese companies operating in China," he added.
For Montenegro, the fact that the visits are being made “with some pressure in terms of duration” – four days divided between China and Japan – should be seen from another perspective.
"It is simply a record that we are capable of doing all this simultaneously, we are capable of leaving here for Macau, we are capable of leaving Macau for Tokyo and, in this geographical area, we are capable of conveying the message that Portugal is a confident country, a reliable country, a country that is worth looking at and that also looks at the world," he argued.
In his initial statement to journalists, Montenegro pointed out that, today, Portugal already “benefits from several investments originating in China, which have been levers for Portugal’s transformation and economic development.”
"It is our intention to contribute with our visit here so that we can also open doors for more Portuguese companies to find a market for their products in China and, in this way, also increase our export share to this region," he said.
As he has said several times, the prime minister repeated in Beijing that Portugal “is a country that offers economic and financial stability and economic performance that is above the European Union average”.
“It is a safe destination for investment and also a gateway to the world, with excellence, innovation and the ability to conquer important markets such as the Chinese market,” he said.
At the end of the day, the prime minister will leave for the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR), where he will have an agenda on Wednesday morning, before heading to Japan.
"The way in which the transition took place and how we have managed, despite some setbacks, to ensure the preservation of our cultural and historical figure in the territory has been a dominant theme, as has our contribution to ensuring that now, with this special administrative regime, the citizens of Macau can have access to levels of development that are also an appeal and a desire of the Portuguese government,” he said.
The last item on Montenegro’s agenda in Beijing was a working meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Li Qiang, preceded by military honours at the Great Hall of the People, followed by a banquet hosted by the Chinese government.
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