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António Costa
Portugal Prime Minister António Costa, who is on an official visit to India, was greeted with six Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) between India and Portugal being signed on the occasion, including one pact on defence cooperation.
Later Mr Costa visited Goa, his ancestral home and Bengaluru where he was the Chief Guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas opened on Saturday. The Portugal PM is on a seven-day visit to India. Portugal PM Costa presented PM Modi with Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo’s jersey.
PM Narendra Modi, welcoming the visiting Portugal PM, said, “It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you and your delegation to India. We are deeply honoured that you accepted our invitation to be the Chief Guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. In my extensive discussion with Portugal PM we reviewed the full range of India-Portugal ties.”
On Portugal’s support to India’s Nuclear Supply Group membership, he said, “We are grateful to Portugal for their continued support for India’s membership in Nuclear Suppliers Group. The MoU on Defence cooperation signed today will help us harness our respective strengths in this field for mutual benefit.”
Costa’s father was writer Orlando da Costa, who was of Goan, Portuguese, and French descent. His 200-year-old ancestral house on Abade Faria Road in Margao, where Anna Kaarina Costa, first cousin of the Portugal Prime Minister, currently lives was spruced up for his visit.
This is his second visit to the house, the first was when he had come with his parents as a teenager. Portugal ruled Goa till 1961.
