China’s top legislator Zhao Leji has met with leaders in the Portuguese government during a three-day goodwill visit to the country, reports Xinhua, with discussions centred on promoting China-Portugal and China-EU ties.
Zhao, chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, arrived in Portugal last Thursday where he met with President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and President of the Assembly Jose Pedro Aguiar-Branco. The trip came as the two countries mark the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and the 25th anniversary of Macao’s return to China.
President Rebelo de Sousa highlighted both these events when expressing Portugal’s willingness to enhance high-level exchanges with China and strengthen cooperation in areas including trade, new energy, marine economy and the digital economy. He also reaffirmed Portugal’s commitment to multilateralism and safeguarding the role of the UN and the authority of international law.
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Zhao, in his meeting with the prime minister, said China will continue to advance collaboration with Portugal within the UN and other multilateral frameworks. Speaker Aguiar-Branco echoed the sentiment, saying Portugal hopes to strengthen communication and cooperation with China and jointly safeguard the UN Charter and multilateralism.
On the topic of the EU, Zhao voiced his hope to Rebelo de Sousa, Montenegro and Aguiar-Branco that Portugal would work together with China to improve China-EU ties.
Zhao also cited areas for cooperation – including AI, clean energy, technology innovation, personnel training, and culture and people-to-people exchanges – in his meeting with Montenegro. He emphasised that recent years have seen a development of relations between Beijing and Lisbon, including progress in cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s flagship international infrastructure project.
