Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva told Belarusian Ambassador Pavel Latushka that Portugal is interested in cooperation with Belarus and ready to help the country bring its relations with the European Union back to normal.
Messrs. Silva and Latushka had a brief conversation during the Portuguese president’s reception for the heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Lisbon, according to the Belarusian embassy to France.
Mr. Latushka passed New Year’s greetings to Mr. Silva on behalf of Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Mr. Latushka also had a meeting with Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva. He told Mr. Silva that Minsk was interested in a dialogue at the level of foreign ministries to step up trade and economic cooperation with Portugal, the embassy said.
Mr. Silva expressed support for a proposal to organize a bilateral economic forum with the help of the Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade of Portugal. Measures to develop trade and economic cooperation between Belarus and Portugal and the legal basis for it were under discussion at Mr. Latushka’s meeting with Eduardo Cabrita, minister assistant in the Portuguese government, the embassy said.
The possibility of holding the first-ever Belarusian-Portuguese forum was discussed during a meeting between Mr. Latushka and Miguel Frasquilho, president of the Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade of Portugal, the embassy said. Participants expressed readiness to contribute to the development of contact between the two countries’ business circles.
While in Lisbon, Mr. Latushka also met with top managers of Portugal’s largest construction company Mota-Engil, which established a subsidiary company in Minsk last year to participate in the country’s infrastructural projects.
