Foreign relations of Portugal

Foreign relations of Portugal are linked with its historical role as a major player in the Age of Discovery and the holder of the now defunct Portuguese Empire. Portugal is a European Union member country and a founding member of NATO. It is a committed proponent of European integration and transatlantic relations. Paulo Rangel is the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal.

Historical

Historically, the focus of Portuguese diplomacy has been to preserve its independence, vis-à-vis, the danger of annexation by Spain, and the maintenance of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, which officially came into being in 1386, and with the United Kingdom as a successor to England, it is still in place today.

Other goals have also been constant such as the political stability of the Iberian Peninsula and the affirmation of Portuguese interests in Europe and the Atlantic (also in the Indian and Pacific Oceans throughout different moments in history).

International organizations

thumb|240px|[[Angela Merkel and José Manuel Barroso]]

Portugal was a founding member of NATO (1949), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (1961), and European Free Trade Area (1960); it left the latter in 1986 to join the European Economic Community, which would become the European Union (EU) in 1993. In 1996, it co-founded the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP). The country is a member state of the United Nations since 1955.

Recently, the primacy of the United States and inter-governmental organizations such as NATO and the United Nations have also been paramount in the affirmation of Portugal abroad.

Portugal has been a significant beneficiary of the EU. It was among the top beneficiaries of the EU-15 between 1995 and 2004 (only behind Spain and Greece in absolute terms, and behind Ireland and Greece in a per capita basis). Portugal is a proponent of European integration and held the presidency of the European Union for the second time during the first half of 2000, and again in the second half of 2007. Portugal used its term to launch a dialogue between the EU and Africa and to begin to take steps to make the European economy dynamic and competitive. In 2002, the euro began to circulate as Portugal's currency. José Sócrates, as Prime Minister of Portugal, presided over the rotative Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the period July–December 2007. In this post, Sócrates and his team focused on the EU-Brazil (1st EU-Brazil summit) and EU-African Union (2007 Africa-EU Summit) relations, as well as in the approval of the Treaty of Lisbon.

Portugal was a founding member of NATO; it is an active member of the alliance by, for example, contributing proportionally large contingents in Balkan peacekeeping forces. Portugal proposed the creation of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) to improve its ties with other Portuguese-speaking countries. Additionally, Portugal has participated, along with Spain, in a series of Ibero-American Summit. Portugal held the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) for the year 2002. The chairman-in-office was Portuguese Foreign Minister António Martins da Cruz.

Disputes

Portugal holds claim to the disputed territory of Olivença on the Portugal-Spain border.

International visits

List of international prime ministerial trips made by Luís Montenegro
List of international prime ministerial trips made by António Costa

Diplomatic relations

List of countries which Portugal maintains diplomatic relations with:

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| colonizing the territory from 1483 until independence in 1975. Angola's war for independence did not end in a military victory for either side, but was suspended as a result of a coup in Portugal, that replaced the Caetano regime with a Military junta.

Angola has an embassy in Lisbon and a consulate-general in Porto.
Portugal has an embassy in Luanda and a consulate-general in Benguela.

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||| Relations between the two are intrinsically tied because of the Portuguese Empire. They continue to be bound by a common language and ancestral lines in Portuguese Brazilians, which can be traced back hundreds of years.

Brazil has an embassy in Lisbon and consulates-general in Faro and Porto.
Portugal has an embassy in Brasília, consulates-general in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, São Paulo and consulates in Belém, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Recife and Santos.

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|||||See Portugal–Uruguay relations.

Portugal has an embassy in Montevideo.
Uruguay has an embassy in Lisbon.

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Portugal is accredited to Armenia from its embassy in Moscow, Russia.
Portugal has recognized the Armenian genocide in 2019.

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Israel has an embassy in Lisbon.
Portugal has an embassy in Tel Aviv.

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||| In 2017, Portugal cut diplomatic ties with North Korea.

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Portugal has an embassy in Seoul.
South Korea has an embassy in Lisbon.

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Portugal has an embassy in Tirana.
Both countries are full members of NATO.
Albania is an EU candidate and Portugal is an EU member.

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|||||See Andorra–Portugal relations

Andorra has an embassy in Lisbon.
Portugal is accredited to Andorra from its embassy in Madrid, Spain.

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||| Kosovo has formally announced its decision to open an embassy in Lisbon.

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Luxembourg has an embassy in Lisbon.
Portugal has an embassy in Luxembourg.
Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO.

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||| Relations continued with the successor Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Portuguese recognized the government in exile of this state after the German occupation of 1941. Relations with the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which took power in 1945 after World War II, were only established in 1974 after the Portuguese Carnation Revolution. Following the dissolution of SFR Yugoslavia during the Yugoslav wars, Portugal maintained relations with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, later reconstituted as Serbia and Montenegro and finally as Serbia after Montenegro declared its independence in July 2006.

In April 1999, Portugal participated in the NATO bombing of Serbia from the Aviano air base in Italy. Portugal also provided troops as part of NATO peacekeeping efforts in the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo in 1999. In April 1999, Serbia filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice regarding Portugal's use of force in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. As of 2007, Portugal still had about 300 troops in Kosovo.

In December 1997, President of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević received Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama to discuss strengthening bilateral relations.
In January 2002, Jaime Gama returned to Yugoslavia in his capacity as Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Chairman-in-Office. The OSCE was engaged in stabilizing the situation in southern Serbia following the Kosovo War.
In November 2003, the President of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marović, visited Portugal. During this visit, he signed an agreement on the succession of Bilateral Agreements between Yugoslavia and Portugal, extending prior agreements on tourism, business, scientific, and technological co-operation, and co-operation in information.
In May 2007, Portuguese Foreign Minister Luís Amado gave strong support for Serbian ambitions to join the European Union.
In July 2007, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica visited Lisbon.
In October 2008, Portugal recognized Kosovo's independence from Serbia. (See also Kosovan–Portuguese relations.)
In November 2008, Portuguese Foreign Minister Luís Amado met with his Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremić in Belgrade and voiced his support for removing the suspension of a trade agreement between Serbia and the European Union. Also that month, the Serbian Minister of Science and Technological Development met a Portuguese delegation and discussed cooperation in energy efficiency, nanotechnology, and the food industry, with plans to sign a co-operation agreement on science and technology by the end of 2008.
In February 2009, Serbian Defence Minister Dragan Šutanovac met with his Portuguese counterpart Nuno Severiano Teixeira. They signed an agreement on defense cooperation and discussed Serbia's NATO bid.
In June 2009, Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković met with Portuguese parliamentary speaker Jaime Gama, and discussed improvements to bilateral cooperation.

In the January–October 2006 period, bilateral trade between Serbia and Portugal were estimated at US$12.7 million.

Spain has an embassy in Lisbon and a consulate-general in Porto.
Both countries are full members of the European Union and NATO.

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Both countries are full members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and of the Council of Europe.
Portugal is an EU member and Ukraine is an EU candidate.
As of 2015, according to United Nations statistics, there are 45,051 Ukrainians living in Portugal.

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||| ||See Portugal–United Kingdom relations.

thumb|right|[[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|British Prime Minister Boris Johnson with Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa in 10 Downing Street, June 2022.]]

Portugal established diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom on 9 May 1386.

The United Kingdom is accredited to Portugal through its embassy in Lisbon, and a vice consulate in Portimão.

Both countries share common membership of the Atlantic Co-operation Pact, the Council of Europe, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the World Trade Organization. Bilaterally the two countries have the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, and a Double Taxation Convention.

Oceania

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! style="width:12%;"| Formal relations began

!Notes

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