New Delhi, December 11
Paulo Rangel, Minister of State and Foreign Affairs of the Portugal, will be on a four-day official visit to India from December 12 to 15.
According to a release by the Ministry of External Affairs, Rangel will arrive in New Delhi on Thursday, December 12, marking the beginning of his visit.
On Friday, December 13, the Portuguese Foreign Minister will hold a crucial meeting with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, at the Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi.
On Saturday, December 14, Minister Rangel is scheduled to travel to Goa to participate in programmes.
He will conclude his visit to India with an early morning departure on Sunday, December 15.
Notably, last month, PM Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with his Portuguese counterpart Luis Montenegro where they focused on strengthening economic partnership. PM Modi said that both countries explored opportunities for more collaboration in sectors like renewable energy and green hydrogen.
"Had a very good meeting with Prime Minister of Portugal, Mr. Luis Montenegro. India cherishes the long-standing ties with Portugal. Our talks focussed on adding more vigour to our economic linkages. Sectors like renewable energy and green hydrogen offer many opportunities for more collaboration. We also talked about strong defence relations, people-to-people linkages and other such subjects," PM Modi wrote on X.
Relations between India and Portugal began amicably in 1947 after India's independence and diplomatic relations were established in 1949. However, they soon went into decline in 1950 after Portugal's dictator Antonio Salazar refused to surrender the Portuguese enclaves. Indian military action under Operation Vijay liberated Goa on 19 December 1961, ending over 450 years of Portuguese rule, according to the MEA.
However, diplomatic relations were restored following the Portuguese Carnation Revolution in April 1974 which overthrew Salazar's, Estado Novo. India and Portugal signed a treaty on 31 December 1974 on recognition of India's sovereignty over Goa, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and related matters. The treaty came into force on June 3, 1975.
The exchanges of presidential visits in 1990, 1992 and 1998, followed by the visit of PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Lisbon in 2000 for the first India-EU Summit and the visit of Portuguese PM Jose Socrates to Delhi for the 8th India-EU Summit during the 2007 Portuguese Presidency of the EU provided the much needed momentum to contemporary relations.
The bilateral relations gathered steam with reciprocal visits by PM Antonio Costa and PM Narendra Modi in January and June 2017 respectively, followed by the visit of PM Costa in December 2019 and the State Visit of President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to India in February 2020.