Portugal’s economy minister told Lusa today that the country is hoping to be included in the group benefiting from a visa exemption to enter China.
“Portugal has signalled this matter, that we would very much like to be included in the group of countries” with the exemption, Pedro Reis told Lusa in Macau, where he is representing Portugal at the 6th ministerial conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese language Countries, better known as Forum Macau.
In March, the Chinese government extended its visa-free policy for stays of up to 15 days to six European countries – Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg – after initially adopting the same measure for Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands at the end of last year.
The measure placed Portugal among the few Western European countries whose nationals do not benefit from the exemption to enter the territory of the world’s second-largest economy. The ‘snub’ may have had a connection with Portugal’s decisions regarding 5G.
