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| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa |
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| THE GUIDE How long have you been in Brazil? |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa I have been in Brazil for about five months. I was previously Ambassador to the OSCE, in Austria, and before that, Ambassador to the United Nations, in New York. |
| THE GUIDE And how do you like Brasília so far? |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa I think Brasília is a very comfortable place to live. It is extremely nice to raise your family and to move around. I confess I was pleasantly surprised with Brasília in terms of quality of life and also by its cultural offer, on contrary of what I had heard and the image you immediately have of a city a little isolated from the cultural circuits. You see there is a great effort to bring to Brasília important events of cultural nature. |
| THE GUIDE Well, Brasília did have the fame of being an isolated town in terms of cultural production until the people that mobilize the arts in Brasília have put themselves into changing this scenario… |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa Exactly! Actually, I have noticed the efforts of the Secretary of Culture of the government of Distrito Federal, Mr. Pedro Bório. It is remarkable the amount of events we can enjoy and if people are attentive to participate of these events will find a great cultural offer in Brasília. |
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| THE GUIDE You have come to Brasília with your wife, Mrs. Maria Virgínia Seixas da Costa. Has she fully adapted to the city? |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa She is enjoying Brasília immensely. She loves the city and has already found friends. As diplomats we are used to moving to different cities in different countries. But Brazil is a very special case in our experience. To be a Portuguese ambassador here is very easy: we speak the same language, there is an immense Portuguese community and the Brazilians are very friendly to us. |
| THE GUIDE Have you been to other cities in Brazil? |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa I already knew Rio de Janeiro and some historical cities in Minas Gerais, as a tourist. But since I have come to this mission, I have been to Rio and São Paulo several times, but also to Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza, Goiás, Salvador and Recife. This week I will be in Pará and Amazonas. So, for a man who has been in Brazil for less than half a year, I believe I have travelled around quite a lot. And I do not intend to stop. |
| THE GUIDE And in this trips, have you noticed much similarity between the people from Brazil and the people from Portugal? |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa Being very close we are at the same time very different. Brazil is a melting pot of cultures, but the common language and some cultural references create a special relationship. Sometimes I need to convince myself that I am living in a foreign country, because I feel very much at home. The fantastic experience of living in Brazil is the possibility to enjoy this vibrating and optimistic society, very much opened no the outside world. |
| THE GUIDE How are the bilateral affairs between Brazil and Portugal? |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa I usually say that in the political aspects, we were able to create a peculiar pattern of diplomatic relations: regardless of the ideological lines of each others governments, there is always a common will to lessen all possible conflicts. And it is important to notice that for the last 7 years our relations gained a more substantive nature. Portugal became more interested in the Brazilian market and very important financial investments took place here. Today there are about 400 Portuguese companies in Brazil, creating almost 100 thousand jobs. There is also a large volume of exports between the two countries, especially from Brazil to Portugal. And tourism became, more recently, an important reality between the two countries. In the Northeast of Brazil it is possible to identify a large number of initiatives in tourism in new hotels, inns and even in the acquisition of residences for vacations. Portuguese tourists are more and more interested in the Northeast of Brazil and their presence has been awakening the interest of Brazilians in Portugal. The Portuguese airline TAP offer daily flights from Portugal to and from several cities in Brazil and we hope that more lines will be created in the near future. Portugal is becoming a traditional stopover in the flights from Brazil to Europe. It is time for the Brazilian people to discover Portugal! |
| THE GUIDE What is the foreign policy of Portugal? |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa Portugal has four basic lines in its foreign policy. The first one is its integration into the European Union and all the efforts that have been applied in the last 16 years in order of guaranteeing an efficient insertion of Portugal in the project of the European Union construction. A second line is based in the relations with the Portuguese speaking countries, to which Portugal gives a great deal of attention, namely Brazil. The transatlantic link is also of extreme importance to us, taking into account the excellent relations with the United States and its impact in our commitment to NATO. The fourth line of interest is linked to the countries in which there are Portuguese communities. There are many millions of Portuguese citizens living in several countries to which our diplomacy devotes great attention. Apart from these basic lines, we take into particular consideration our relations with Arab and Mediterranean countries. And we have bilateral affairs with all the African countries, of course. As for the Arab countries, we have excellent relations with some countries like Morocco , Tunisia and Algeria and we act as mediators of the intense relations between the Arab countries and the European Union. |
| THE GUIDE How many Portuguese citizens are there in Brazil nowadays? |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa That is a great "mystery" because it depends on how many people consider themselves Portuguese citizens. If we are talking about those with Portuguese passports only, there are around five hundred thousand people. But there are many more Portuguese-Brazilian people. |
| THE GUIDE The Embassy of Portugal has come up with this very important initiative of remembering the great collection that the Embassy and lovers of the Portuguese arts have here in Brasília, of great expressivity. Could you tell us how the exhibition was first imagined? |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa Well, the idea came to my mind when I realized the interesting collection of paintings and others pieces, both in the chancellery and the residence, during the routine inventory of the Embassy assets. There are very interesting pieces of dozens of Portuguese artists and I thought it would be useful to put all these pieces together in one exhibition. The exhibition is an opportunity to show the collection of the Embassy but mainly to show a little more of what Portugal produces in terms of arts. Later I thought of adapting the idea and inviting local collectors to enlarge the exhibition. Mrs. Karla Osorio, a producer of this kind of events, gladly assumed the responsibility of organizing the exhibition. I hope that this exhibition will later originate a book. It is a great opportunity to show our Brazilian friends the richness of the Portuguese contemporary arts. |
| THE GUIDE The exhibition will be inaugurated at the celebration of the Portuguese National Day. How is this day celebrated in Portugal and what has the Embassy of Portugal arranged here, in Brazil? |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa The Portuguese National Day is to the day of the death of our greatest poet, Luis de Camões, in 1580, also the year we lost our sovereignty to Spain (recovered in 1640). It is a national holiday in Portugal with a special ceremony presided by the President of the Portuguese Republic, in which decorations are given to Portuguese citizens who have distinguished themselves with great achievements in various areas in Portuguese life. Every year the ceremony is celebrated in a different Portuguese city. Here in Brazil , there will be more than one celebration, mostly promoted and organized by the communities themselves. I will come to three of them, in Brasília on June 8th, at the Embassy, when the exhibition will be inaugurated, in Pará on June 10th and in Manaus on June 12th. A State Secretary from Portugal will come especially to the celebrations in Recife. But many other events, namely in the cultural area, will take place during this week, all across Brazil. |
| THE GUIDE What is the most popular sport in Portugal? |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa For sure soccer, the one that moves the people, in spite of other modalities. In that aspect we are also very much similar to the Brazilians. |
| THE GUIDE Ambassador, do you have other plans during your mission here in Brazil? |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa As Ambassador of Portugal in Brazil it is my obligation to be ambitious, even before being realistic… My main purpose is to reinforce our relations in every possible sector – political, economic, cultural and in the human relations between the two people. But it is also my intention to guarantee that Brazil and Portugal work closely together in reinforcing the CPLP – the Community of the Portuguese speaking countries: Angola, Brazil, Cape Vert, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and S.Tomé and Principe. If I could give an impulse to this project from Brasilia I would consider my mission accomplished |
| THE GUIDE congratulates the Embassy of Portugal for its National Day! |
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