Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro will visit Macau next Tuesday and Wednesday, the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS) announced today.
According to a GCS statement, Montenegro will visit Macau during an official trip to China at the invitation of Prime Minister Li Qiang. The statement noted that the Chief Executive of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR), Sam Hou Fai, will meet with Montenegro during his stay here.
According to public broadcaster TDM, Montenegro's visit to China will begin in Beijing on Monday. In the national capital, Montenegro will meet with President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Li Qiang, and National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee Chairman Zhao Leji.
TDM reported that Montenegro is scheduled to arrive in Macau on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, apart from his meeting with Sam, he will visit the Portuguese School, go on a walkabout, and attend a reception for the Portuguese community at the Bela Vista residence of Portugal’s consul-general, before departing at around 1:30 p.m. for an official visit to Japan.
The TDM report noted that Montenegro’s delegation includes Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel and Economy and Territorial Cohesion Minister Manuel Castro Almeida. The 52-year-old lawyer leads the centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD).
Meanwhile, according to a separate GCS statement yesterday, Sam has sent a letter to Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, expressing condolences for the casualties caused by the derailment of the Gloria funicular railway in Lisbon on Wednesday.
According to official reports from Portugal, 16 people were killed and 21 injured in the incident. The funicular veered off a steep stretch of track in one of Lisbon's most popular tourist spots, crashing into a building.
Portugal administered Macau until midnight on December 19, 1999. The MSAR was established the following day, when the People’s Republic of China (PRC) resumed its exercise of sovereignty over Macau. While the PRC has never recognised foreign sovereignty over its national territory, Portugal had unilaterally relinquished all its overseas claims to sovereignty shortly after its anti-colonial Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974.
June 26, 2025 file photo of Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro. - Image courtesy of newsroom.consilium.europa
