Lisbon

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday stressed that Indo-Portugal relations had seen a lot of new energy and activities for several sectors, noting that trade and investment are clearly a strong driving force.

Jaishankar, along with his Portuguese counterpart Joao Cravinho, delivered a joint statement during a press briefing in Portugal, where both ministers discussed various aspects of the India-Portugal relationship.

He further emphasised that Indian IT companies have made their mark in Portugal.

Additionally, Jaishankar expressed joy that India’s main milk and dairy company, Amul, is the first Indian regional sponsor of the Portuguese national football team. I’m happy to see Amul, the main milk and dairy company, is the first Indian regional sponsor of the Portuguese national football team, he said.

Earlier in the morning, Jaishankar called on Portugal President Augusto Santos Silva. We had a discussion on our political and parliamentary exchanges that I value very much. In our own meeting today, we have had a very detailed assessment of our bilateral partnership, he said.

He further said, We are going to ask our joint economic committee to follow up on some of our discussion and see what more we could be doing in health, pharmaceuticals and renewable energy.

Shedding light on defence cooperation, he said that the two ministers also discussed defence cooperation, start up and innovation.

There was some talk between us on direct air connectivity that is today a missing piece in our relationship. We are very confident that our exchanges will expand once we can progress on that and both of us put a lot of weight on tourism and that to grow direct air connectivity,’ he added.