Portugal’s President arrives in India, ‘human rights will be reaffirmed’

  • Lusa
  • 14 February 2020

Portugal's Presidente, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, affirmed this visit to India fits "in a more executive phase" of bilateral relations.

Portugal’s president said on Thursday that he is in India to pave the way for “concrete progress” and he was sure that during this visit human rights “will not fail to be reaffirmed by both countries.”

“Concrete projects with concrete advances. This is the purpose of the visit,” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told journalists in a hotel in New Delhi, after having landed in the Indian capital for a state visit that will take place until Sunday.

De Sousa said this visit to India fits “in a more executive phase” of bilateral relations, “more focused on concrete, economic and financial cooperation, scientific and technological cooperation.”

“There are agreements that will be concluded,” he stressed.

Asked about the Hindu nationalist line of the Indian People’s Party (BJP), to which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, belong, and the challenge it has generated, De Sousa began by saying “I usually don’t comment on problems of domestic politics in the countries I visit.”

“But in multilateral relations we have constantly joined forces, at government level, such as heads of state, to pursue certain perspectives that are common, such as multilateralism, such as the defence of human rights, such as the enshrinement of international law, such as the affirmation of the primacy of the dignity of people,” he said.

“India and Portugal have been together in affirming these principles, which will not fail to be reaffirmed by both countries during this visit,” he added.