Portugal’s foreign affairs minister meets with British counterpart in London
Political stability in the UK and the expected approval of Portugal’s draft state budget provide conditions for “bilateral relations to flourish” between the two countries, foreign affairs minister Paulo Rangel said following a meeting yesterday with his British counterpart David Lammy in London.
Rangel went so far as to say that relations between the two countries, allied for centuries, are not only “obviously excellent” but “in need of a post-Brexit relaunch.
“Now in this framework of British political stability, on the one hand, and national stability on the other – since approval of the state budget bill in Portugal is guaranteed – there are all the conditions to make these bilateral relations flourish,” he said.
The afternoon meeting in the British capital was arranged during the European Council of ministers of foreign affairs early this month in Brussels, which Mr Lammy attended on a special basis – as the United Kingdom has not been a part of the EU since 2020.
Paulo Rangel also met with the Secretary of State for the Constitution and Relations with the European Union, Nick Thomas-Symonds.
On the agenda were issues of support for Ukraine – namely how Portugal can collaborate with some British programmes to supply war material – and the call for an urgent humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
Lammy and Rangel also condemned the attacks by Israeli armed forces on the United Nations mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), and spoke of the need to “de-escalate” the conflict.
On the subject of the EU’s relations with the UK, they discussed their interest in cooperation in the areas of defence and internal security, in particular the fight against transnational criminal networks linked to terrorism, drug trafficking and human trafficking, and in promoting trade.
“We, for our part, talked a lot about the need to return to student mobility programmes,” said Rangel, in a reference to the European Commission’s proposal for a youth mobility scheme for citizens between the ages of 18 and 30.
So far, the UK has rejected this idea – as well as refusing a return to the customs union, the single market and the free movement of people – but has said it wants to remove some of the trade barriers with Europe.
Rangel emphasised that “the UK is a friendly state and that it is always in Portugal’s priorities”, but warned that any kind of negotiations with the EU will have to be of mutual benefit. In other words, the UK cannot cherry pick “only what it is interested in”.
Source material: LUSA
