The president of the republic denied the existence of a blacklist, reported this Saturday by the weekly Sol, and underlined that Portugal and Qatar have a strong diplomatic economic relationship.
The president of the republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said today that Portugal and Qatar have “strong diplomatic relationship”, denying that there is “a black list” and opposing “reality” to “speculation”.
When asked by journalists about an article in the newspaper Sol that Portugal would be placed on Qatar’s blacklist, the head of state said that “one thing is what is speculation, another thing is reality”.
And he pointed out that “the reality is very simple, there is a strong diplomatic, economic relationship that came from the past, which does not prevent different points of view on important matters”.
“But it cannot be said that there is a black list or a list of any other color that affects the general foreign policy of a country, in this case Portugal and Qatar, because it could be Portugal and the United Arab Emirates or Portugal And Saudi Arabia or other countries in the region that have very similar regimes in some important aspects”, said the President of the Republic, who was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a visit to the Rastrillo Solidarity Fair in Lisbon.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also said he returned to the country on Friday from where he had gone to watch the national team’s match at the World Football Championships against Ghana, and met “with the prime minister and other Qatari officials”.
