These are some of the objectives outlined by a source in the Prime Minister's office for Luís Montenegro's official visits next week to China, where he will meet with President Xi Jinping and visit the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR), and to Japan, with stops in Tokyo and the Osaka Expo.

The Prime Minister's visit to Japan and the Osaka exhibition was scheduled for May, but the government's resignation—in the wake of the political crisis surrounding his family's company, Spinumviva—and subsequent early elections postponed the trip. The same reason the June 10 celebrations in Macau with the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, were cancelled, eventually taking place in Munich and Stuttgart, Germany.

According to the Prime Minister's office, a visit to China was already planned for the second half of the year, so the two were combined for "logistical reasons," lasting a total of five days. The same source emphasized that there was no "political sensitivity" with this option.

In Japan, the primary objective is to increase that country's investment in Portugal and attempt to diversify beyond the automotive industry. A partnership in the space sector between CEiiA (Engineering and Development Center, in Matosinhos) and a Japanese company is currently under consideration.

To this end, the Minister of Economy and Territorial Cohesion, Manuel Castro Almeida, will hold "a series of meetings with Japanese investors," and Luís Montenegro will meet at the Japanese Business Federation with about a dozen companies "that have a concrete interest" in Portugal, the same source explained.

On the other hand, Portugal wants to "raise the level of its political and diplomatic relationship with Japan" to a strategic partnership, which will involve more mechanisms for bilateral relations and greater cultural exchange.

China

Regarding China, a source from the Prime Minister's office said that Luís Montenegro's visit is part of Portugal's "diplomatic tradition," as all heads of state and several prime ministers have visited this country, the "second-largest economy in the world" and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

Highlights of the visit include the Prime Minister's "highest-level" meetings with the President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, with whom Montenegro is expected to discuss "the international context," and with his counterpart, Li Qiang, in a meeting where the war in Ukraine is expected to be discussed.

Economically, the goal of the visit to China is to improve the trade balance between the two countries, which is "severely imbalanced" in Beijing's favour, and some memoranda of understanding in the agri-food sector are expected to be signed.

"Portugal will convey to China that it believes in a rules-based trading system," the same source emphasized.

The Portuguese Prime Minister's visit to China will take place the week after the meeting in Beijing of Chinese leaders Xi Jinping, Russian leaders Vladimir Putin, and North Korean leaders Kim Jong-un, at a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in the Pacific.

Luís Montenegro's brief visit to Macau, a territory administered by Portugal until 1999, is framed as a signal to China that the country continues to value the Portuguese presence in the region, especially in terms of language and culture, and that "it is the singularities" of the MSAR that make it "a success story."