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LISBON: Portuguese leaders have criticized US Ambassador George Glass after he said they must choose between the United States and China or risk the consequences.
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told reporters on Monday (September 29): “In Portugal it is the representatives elected by the Portuguese and only they who decide their fate, respecting the Constitution and the rights it grants them.”
Glass told the Expresso newspaper over the weekend that Portugal had to choose between its American “friends and allies” and its “economic partner” China. He described the country as a “battlefield” between Washington and Beijing.
Portugal could expect security and defense-related consequences if it chooses to work with China rather than the United States on developments related to 5G networks and others, he said.
In response, Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva told the Lusa news agency: “In Portugal, the decision makers are the Portuguese authorities, who decide what the interests of Portugal are.
The three companies that dominate Portugal’s mobile phone market have already said they would not use Huawei’s technology in their core 5G networks, but the Portuguese government has not prohibited the Chinese group from supplying the infrastructure.
China incorporated Portugal into its Belt and Road initiative in December 2018 and in recent years Chinese companies have invested around 10 billion euros in the country, making it one of the largest recipients of Chinese investment in Europe. .
Several Portuguese companies have opened the doors to Chinese investment.
State-owned China Three Gorges has a 23 percent stake in Portugal’s top utility company EDP and last month the country’s largest builder, Mota-Engil, said it was close to closing a deal to sell a stake. 30 percent of the company to China Communications Construction Co.
