Discussions on cooperation between ports of Sines and Rotterdam

The foreign ministers of Portugal and the Netherlands agreed on Tuesday to hold a conference between the ports of Sines and Rotterdam on how they to meet new energy challenges.

The issue of energy, with the difficulties European countries face due to the war unleashed by Russia in Ukraine, and the desired transition to cleaner energies, occupied much of a meeting in Lisbon of João Gomes Cravinho and Wopke Hoekstra.

At the final press conference, the Portuguese minister said he had welcomed a proposal made by his Dutch counterpart to hold a conference between the ports of the two countries “on how they can meet new energy challenges”.

“We spent some time discussing what more we can do in terms of energy, namely new energies, hydrogen (…), and we analysed the roles of our ports, in particular those of Sines and Rotterdam,” Gomes Cravinho said, announcing afterwards that he considered the Dutch proposal “excellent”.

The Dutch minister, for his part, said that “there is room” for the two ports “to do more together” in terms of supplying energy to their respective countries but also “more widely in the energy transition and trade relations.

“Naturally, it is up to the heads of our ports, other ministries and business people to do this with us and explore what the opportunities really are,” Wopke Hoekstra safeguarded.

The heads of diplomacy of Portugal and the Netherlands underlined the “strong convergence of views on many issues” at the end of a meeting in which they analysed aspects of the bilateral relationship and issues that dominate international news, particularly the situation in Ukraine.

“There is a communion of views between Portugal and the Netherlands on how to support Ukraine in defending itself from Russia’s illegal and unjustified invasion,” the Portuguese minister said.