The Portuguese head of state said on Tuesday that he found President Lula “in great form” and that the two spoke of the “new situation of the world” with the current US administration of Donald Trump.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke in response to questions from journalists, at the official residence of the Portuguese ambassador in Brasilia, after being received by Lula da Silva at the Planalto Palace for about an hour and a half.
“It was very interesting, first, because I found President Lula in great physical form, after a recent recovery period, in great physical form, and this gives him a vigor, an animation, what he likes to be, a great energy, “he said.
“We can’t pretend we don’t see it”
The Portuguese president said that the two spoke of the challenges placed by the current US administration, which “alters the rules of the game”, and were “practically total” about the changes ongoing worldwide.
“The world as we know it has changed, and we can’t pretend we don’t see,” he said.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa qualified Lula da Silva as “a causes fighter” whose “international cause” the defense of the “fundamental rules and fundamental principles of international life that have been in force for a long time” and “help rebuild what is fundamental to partnerships, alliances, understanding at international level. “
The head of state pointed out that Brazil has chaired the G20, presides over to the BRICS and will organize the next United Nations conference on climate change and “is in a permanent meeting with countries from other continents, such as Portugal is too.”
“We are platforms of dialogue with these countries, and we are in many communities together. In addition to the United Nations, we are obviously in the community of Portuguese-speaking countries (CPLP), we are in the Ibero-American community,” he continued.
“I mean, there are many platforms where we can act together to ensure that the values and principles we were used to and were certain, suddenly they are not thrown out the window,” he said.
New world, new positions?
On Portugal, on relations with the United States of America, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa commented: “We are waiting for partners, friends and allies to have certain behaviors. They have had for decades.”
“And suddenly they are giving signs that they will no longer have, or have already given signs that they will stop having. Well, then we have to rethink as well as we will position ourselves before this new situation, which is a very new situation and, In this extent and on this scale, very unexpected, “he added.
As Brands of the Trump Administration, he pointed out “interfering with the internal policy” of other states and questioning “the vision of the territorial integrity of states and the weight of international organizations, multilateralism”, with “more protectionism.”
Regarding Luso-Brazilian relations, the Portuguese president said that representatives of both countries are “facing the future” and want to cooperate “in completely different sectors, high technology, digital, energy changes, new business activities that growth”.
Asked about difficulties in the regularization of Brazilians residing in Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied that “this was seen” and emphasized that “a diploma from the nationals of Portuguese -speaking countries, and has now been regulated by the government,” said recently, ” which will have “a very positive influence” in these cases.
In turn, the president of Brazil published on social networks the following message, accompanied by a photograph alongside the Portuguese head of state: “I received today, in Brasilia, the President of the Republic of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. flow and investment flows and create new partnerships in the scientific, technological, cultural and educational fields “.
