FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
‘Portugal Wants Port of Sines in One Belt, One Road Project,’ Says Ambassador in Macau
May 2, 2018 (EIRNS)—That was the headline appearing in several major Portuguese media yesterday on an interview given by Portugal’s Ambassador to China José Augusto Duarte to media at the consulate in Macau.
“Portugal has an unequivocal interest in being connected to this initiative, from an economic perspective,” the Ambassador said. It can help the Portuguese economy considerably, since Portugal has
“a unique strategic position in Europe, with easy connectivity to the American continent and the African continent by sea, and by land to the whole continental Eurasian landmass.”
Sines is a modern deep-water port on the Atlantic, located in the center of Portugal, which the government has invited Chinese and other investors to help expand. It is already Portugal’s leading port in cargo volume, equipped to handle cargo ranging from LNG to containers, with a developed Industrial and Logistics Zone attached. In March, the government opened bidding on the key investment required for full participation of Sines in the Belt and Road: construction and upgrading of the rail line connecting the Sines/Lisbon ports to Spain’s high-speed rail system, and from there, to the line between Madrid, Spain and Yiwu, China.
Ambassador Duarte was firm when faced with the inevitable press questioning of civil liberties in China, responding that today China has
“the best standard of living they have probably had in their history. No people are indifferent to material well-being. With the passage of time this may not be sufficient, but each society has to see the best timing for this.”
