China, Portugal pledge to enhance cooperation, safeguard free trade

BEIJING -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang held talks with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro in Beijing on Tuesday, with the two sides pledging to enhance cooperation and work together to safeguard free trade.

Li said that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of China-Portugal comprehensive strategic partnership, which presents new opportunities for the growth of bilateral relations and cooperation.

China is willing to work with Portugal to enhance high-level exchanges, strengthen political mutual trust, deepen and solidify cooperation across various fields, and bring more benefits to the people of both countries, he noted.

Li said China is ready to strengthen its alignment of development strategies with Portugal, continue joint efforts in high-quality Belt and Road development, tap into the potential of emerging areas such as the digital economy and the green economy, create more growth drivers for cooperation, and support enterprises from both countries in exploring third-party markets together.

He noted that China is ready to import more high-quality agricultural and food products from Portugal, and encourages more Chinese enterprises to invest in Portugal. He also expressed hope that Portugal will foster a favorable business environment.

The Chinese premier called on both sides to further facilitate personnel exchanges, unleash the vitality of tourism-driven economic activities, and enhance exchange and cooperation in cultural fields such as higher education, language teaching, digital education and youth engagement.

Li said that at present, unilateralist and protectionist acts are severely impacting the international order. As two major global forces, China and the European Union (EU) should strengthen coordination and work together to address these challenges, he added.

He expressed China's hope that Portugal will encourage and guide the EU to adhere to its positioning as a partner of China, adopt a positive and pragmatic policy toward China, and work with China to safeguard free trade and protect the common interests of both sides.

Montenegro said that the Portuguese government is willing to use the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries as an opportunity to enhance dialogue and exchange at all levels, deepen cooperation in areas such as trade, agriculture, maritime affairs, culture and sports, and create new highlights in sci-tech innovation, the digital economy, green energy and tourism cooperation.

He added that Portugal is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with China on multilateral platforms such as the United Nations, to work with China to oppose protectionism, and to uphold open and fair free trade.