Lisbon, Jan. 16, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's prime minister said on Thursday that "there will be few in Portugal" who don't identify with deepening democracy or valuing human dignity, defending the "largely majority" view in favour of bringing peoples and cultures closer together.
Luís Montenegro took advantage of the launch of Portugal's participation in Expo 2025 Osaka (Japan) to announce that he will visit the venue on 5 May and highlight the country's universal and ecumenical vocation.
"Our history shows it. This is not likely to be a heated opinion from a political representative of the country. It's obvious. It's an objective fact. We were, in fact, a nation that contributed to the discovery of the world and other geographical spaces to bring these spaces closer together," he said at a ceremony held at the Lisbon Oceanarium.
The prime minister once again said that Portugal combines "political and financial stability" with the capacity of academia and territorial development projects.
"To bring people together, to bring cultures together, to promote peace, to promote the essential values that we, in Portugal, favour in a way that I'm not going to say is total, but at least is largely majority," he said.
He added: "There are few people in Portugal who don't identify with valuing people's dignity, ensuring their fundamental rights, and promoting and deepening the political regime that is democracy," he said.
Montenegro thanked Joana Gomes Cardoso, Portugal's commissioner-general for Expo 2025 Osaka, who was appointed by the previous PS government and who had emphasised the stability of the project, for also stressing the importance of this continuity.
"We have no problem recognising that much of the work that has brought us to this point was not done by us, nor did we coordinate it, nor did we oversee it. But that doesn't mean that we don't appreciate it and that we don't have a sense of commitment and responsibility towards it," she said.
Like the commissioner-general, the prime minister said that Portugal's participation in Osaka should be based on the future rather than the past.
"We are at a time when, as a country that has discovered the world, we want the world to discover Portugal. And the universal exhibition is one of the contexts where we can achieve this goal more quickly," he argued.
Montenegro emphasised the "happy coincidence" that, almost 30 years after Expo 98, Portugal is once again presenting itself at a universal exhibition with the theme of the oceans, in whose protection he stressed that the country has been "involved and committed" throughout successive governments.
The prime minister also emphasised the economic potential that Portugal can derive from the Osaka Expo and an opportunity to showcase its culture and traditions, saying "it's no coincidence" that AICEP and Turismo de Portugal are part of this project.
"It's also so that we can reap the rewards of the investments we make and this investment is an important one," he emphasised.
Montenegro announced that he would visit the exhibition on 5 May, which will be Portugal Day at the Exhibition and World Portuguese Language Day.
"Portugal Day at the exhibition couldn't have been better," he said.
Portugal's official mascot at the Osaka Expo will be called Umi - which means ocean in Japanese - a seahorse which, according to the prime minister, is "a beautiful choice to mark the element that linked Portugal and Japan more or less 500 years ago".
"We will be successful if we manage to show what it means to be Portuguese," he said, calling on everyone to focus on the tasks ahead and leave “any complaining in the background”.
Expo 2025 Osaka will take place between 13 April and 13 October 2025.. Portugal is one of the 161 countries participating in the exhibition, dedicated to the theme "Designing Future Societies for Our Lives".
Portugal's participation in the exhibition will be themed "Ocean: BlueDialogue", and more than 150 companies, associations, local authorities, and national artists will be involved.
SMA/ADB // ADB.
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