Chief Executive Sam Hou Fai will pay official visits to Portugal and Spain from September 16 to 23, the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS) announced yesterday.
According to a notice informing the media about the trip, Sam will visit Lisbon and Madrid.
The two-country tour will be Sam’s first foreign trip since becoming Chief Executive of the Macau Special Administrative Region on December 20 last year.
Portugal administered Macau until December 19, 1999. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never recognised the claims of foreign sovereignty over its territory. Portugal unilaterally relinquished its overseas sovereignty claims resulting from its erstwhile colonial empire shortly after its anti-fascist Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974.
The local and central governments said earlier this year that Macau would further strengthen its role as a platform for economic, commercial, and cultural exchanges between China and the world’s Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries.
Portugal and Spain are known for having some of the friendliest relations with China among the 27 EU member states.
