THE AMERICAN Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, was in Lisbon on Thursday to hold talks with Prime Minister José Sócrates.
She made the stop-over on her way to North Africa, where she held high level meetings on trade and security with the governments of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.
Condoleezza Rice was last in Lisbon for the United States/European Union Summit in 2007 during the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union as part of the so-called ‘Troika’ of Russia, the United States and European Union which seeks to resolve conflicts in the Middle East.
At the same time, the Portuguese President, Cavaco Silva, was on state visits to Poland and Slovakia in a bid to drum up bi-lateral investment and trade opportunities and discuss the European Union-United States diplomatic crisis with Russia over her military intervention last month in Georgia.
Cavaco Silva took with him a group of 53 Portuguese businessmen from various sectors and after meeting them told the media that the visit was, in part, to enable Portugal “to have a better understanding of the most important Central and Eastern European countries”
Portugal has in recent years lost considerable foreign investment to Eastern Europe where wages are lower, productivity higher and educational and professional training better.
Meanwhile in Brussels on Monday, the Prime Minister José Sócrates refuted accusations by critics that the government had failed to respond adequately to a cycle of violent crimes including bank robberies, petrol station hold-ups, car-jacks and security van high-jacks.
Sócrates was attending a meeting of EU heads of state to discuss possible political and diplomatic containment of Russia over Georgia in which protests were made but no sanctions were agreed.
Do you have a view on this story? Email: editor@the-resident.com
