Tokyo, Sept. 11, 2025 (Lusa) - The Portuguese prime minister said on Thursday that during his visit to China and Japan, he found that "Portugal is very well regarded" and that the country's image "has improved greatly in recent years".
Luís Montenegro met today at the Portuguese Embassy in Tokyo with some of the athletes who will participate in the World Athletics Championships, the last item on the agenda in Tokyo of his official visit to Japan, which ends on Friday in Osaka.
The prime minister spent a few minutes talking to the president of the Portuguese Athletics Federation, Domingos Castro, who recalled something Montenegro had said to him, that in government, he would have to be a marathon runner.
"Exactly, you have to be a long-distance runner. And Portugal is very well regarded. Today, we have reasons to be optimistic about the future," assured the prime minister.
For the head of government, the way Portugal is viewed "has improved greatly in recent years".
"And the stability we have from a financial and economic point of view is a factor of quality. We are leaving here sincerely hopeful that this will bring benefits," he said, adding that his official visit, first to China and now to Japan, "is going very well".
Luís Montenegro has been prime minister since April 2024, in two PSD/CDS-PP (centre-right) governments, succeeding eight years of Socialist governance led by the current President of the European Council, António Costa.
In a short speech, Montenegro recalled that his visit to Japan was scheduled for May, but due to "vicissitudes of the political calendar" - early elections following the dismissal of the Government - it was rescheduled for now, coinciding with the preparation of these athletes.
"I am glad to have this opportunity to wish you good luck and encourage you," he said, adding that he hoped the Portuguese flag would be "at the highest level in the coming days".
Saying he wanted to be brief - "you didn't come here to listen to the Prime Minister ramble on" - Montenegro took the opportunity to reiterate the message that the current government "is a friend of sport".
"It is a government that sees sport as a driver of human development, that wants to make sport universal (...) But to motivate the country to take up sport, and also to cultivate a sense of national unity and national identity, we need those who are examples to others. And you are those people," he said.
The prime minister assured that the promise to expand facilities to encourage more sports participation, "to support federations, to support the Olympic Committee and participation in major competitions is being implemented".
"It is an ongoing project that will be maintained and reinforced in the coming years. (...) The strategic plan we are developing in the area of sport is, as I like to say, from A to Z: we know that to achieve a certain result, we need to start from the beginning, not give up and complete all the stages until the moment of glory when we see the Portuguese flag raised," he appealed.
At the end, he received a jersey autographed by the entire delegation from former athlete Domingos Castro.
Starting on Saturday and for more than a week, 31 Portuguese athletes will compete in the Japanese capital, the highest number ever for Portugal.
The team has 32 members, two more than in Athens in 1997, but only 31 will compete, as one of them will be a substitute in the debut 4x400 metre relay.
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