Antonio Costa speaking yesterday during the Ministerial Conference
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said he’s confident that his country’s centuries-old relationship with the U.K. would remain strong after the Brexit.
“We want to work towards a constructive, open and close relationship with the U.K., both bilaterally and also in terms of the U.K.’s relationship with European Union as a whole,” Costa told Bloomberg Television while attending events in Macau yesterday. “The U.K. can leave the European Union, but the U.K. doesn’t stop being a big European partner.”
Costa’s U.K. counterpart, Theresa May, began a diplomatic offensive this week as she faces pressure both domestically and internationally to firm up her vision of Britain’s future relationship with the European Union. The pound fell to a 31-year low last week as concerns grew that her pledge to restrict immigration is incompatible with continued unfettered access to the single market.
Costa was visiting the former Portuguese colony of Macau with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, after a weekend swing through Beijing. He cited the longevity of Portugal’s alliance with the U.K. – dating to the Treaty of Windsor in 1386 – as proof the relationship could weather the current uncertainty.
“It started long before the creation of the European Union and will continue long after. We have a very amicable relationship with the U.K.,” Costa said, through a translator. “So we hope the separation will also be amicable, based on respecting sovereign decisions of the British people.”
Last week, Portugal reaffirmed that no negotiations over Brexit would take place until Article 50 was triggered, according to Secretary of State for European Affairs Margarida Marques. She told Bloomberg in August that Portugal insists continued access to the single market depends on accepting free movement of labor.
While Brexit overall is a loss to the European Union, Portugal is nonetheless looking to attract companies due to its geographic location, English-speaking talent pool and proximity to London, Costa said.
“We will be the closest neighbors to the U.K. within the European Union,” he said. Ting Shi, Stephen Engle, Bloomberg/MDT
Calls for the ‘opening of cooperation’ with China
The Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said that Portugal has been benefiting widely from Chinese investments in the last few years. Yesterday during his speech at the opening of the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum Macau, he emphasized that now is the time to “develop three-party projects with China in other regions were the synergies [gained] can be added values.” The Portuguese Prime Minister elected the fields of agriculture, education, environmental protection, infrastructure and renewal energies as the new areas where this new cooperation with the Portuguese-speaking countries could occur.
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