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Ambassador Corrêa is a career diplomat who joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1978. He has served in China, Canada and India before undertaking a number of postings around the Balkans, including his first post as Ambassador to Yugoslavia, and later served as National Co-ordinator and Head Negotiator for the Stability Pact for the Balkans. Ambassadorships to Israel, Cyprus and Brazil preceded his tenure in Lithuania, during which he also served as Special Envoy for the Western Balkans during the Portuguese Presidency of the EU (2007).

Married with three children, and with a degree in Law from both Portugal and Brazil, Ambassador Corrêa also found time to have been a member of the Portuguese Olympic Sailing Team.

We were invited to the new Portuguese Embassy on Gedimino Avenue where Ambassador Corrêa showed us around their new facility which includes embassy, gallery, meeting rooms and other multi-functional areas to serve the Portuguese community in Lithuania and further Lithuanian-Portuguese relations.

Ambassador Corrêa Portugal recently opened an Embassy in Lithuania, what have been the first priorities of the new Embassy?

The embassy opened in February of last year, so we are just over a year old now. The first job was to establish this embassy and our residence of course.

Generally there are no problems in the relationships between Lithuania and Portugal, but we have still had to organise the three main areas of our business; political, economical and cultural.

Politics is very easy because we agree on nearly everything, and much of the business of diplomacy between EU countries goes through Brussels. We have always supported each other in international fora and we have an almost perfect score of mutual support.

From a cultural point of view we have established Portuguese courses and now Vilnius University have quite a group of enthusiastic students, and last year we had 50 graduates from the first year. We have organised several exhibitions in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda and we feature regular screenings of Portuguese films. There have been Portuguese poets and writers visiting here and our musicians have played at the Kauans Jazz Festival, so the cultural side of things is going very well. This is an essential means of communication in understanding each other’s culture.

The Lithuanian Ambassador to Portugal is very active and is working hard on these projects as well. The visit of President Valdas Adamkus to Portugal was important in cementing our friendship and establishing a personal relationship. They got on very well, and these things make a difference.

This year we hope to organise a visit from our Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Economically we are trying very hard. There are already Portuguese products on Rimi shelves, and now we are looking to import more wines as they compete well in terms of price and quality. It is still not so easy to sell wines in Lithuania, but we are moving forward.

Lithuania is an emerging market and linked with Latvia and Estonia, so we hope to convince Portuguese businesses to work these markets through Lithuania.

At a second stage you can also look at the Russian market through Lithuania, but first you need a critical mass of businesses in Lithuania. This has been the focus of our work since we arrived.

I have been trying very hard to get our people to come here and have a look. Portuguese tend to be conservative and still see the Baltic market as being very far away, as we are more used to looking towards Africa and southern European markets, but have to look here soon or later as well.

Are there any historic links between Portugal and Lithuania?

One thing not many know is that we never recognised the annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, so we always saw Lithuania as an independent state, and this is important in regard to our external policy. Lithuania occupies a place in the Portuguese memory, though I’m not sure exactly why, perhaps the stay of Napoleon in Vilnius, because he was a very well known figure in Portugal and this year is the 200 anniversary of the departure of the Portuguese capital to Brazil, which become the capital of Portugal during the time of the Napoleonic conquest of our country.

It was the only case of a European empire being ruled from abroad, or Brazil in our case. It made a great difference to Brazil as well as many of our countrymen stayed there.

There is some talk of Portuguese nobles that settled here, and some castles were said to be built by them, but we can’t quite track them down. But the good thing about the lack of contact is that we never fought against each other either, so there is no history of animosity.

What are the major issues affecting our relationship?

The European Union and United Nations machinery it is very important and a very tough place to be, and small countries like ours need mutual support. We were instrumental in getting Lithuanian equality of gender laws passed, and Lithuania supported our candidature to the Security Council. Last year Portugal provided the air support mission in Šiauliai, and that went very well. There are a lot of positive things going on which help to contribute to better understanding between our countries.

With the advent of the EU has there been much migration between the two countries?

Not like Spain or England. There are a few Lithuanians there, but it is not a major destination for them. And I don’t think it will happen because there is no trend. It works like a snowball as some go and others then follow.

There are quite a lot of our students here, and it is one of their most popular destinations. They like it a lot and is especially popular with northern Portuguese students. All the students I speak to enjoy it here and there are at least 70, but it is hard to keep track of exactly how many as they come and go.

Portugal has become a high demand tourist destination for Lithuanians, and vice versa. Portuguese often come up to visit a number of Baltic states and either enter or exit through Lithuania.

Portugal is probably best known as a warm holiday destination to Lithuanians, but what can you tell us about the industry and character of Portugal?

Before the EU we were very heavily agricultural, but no more. Now other industries are equally important. We don’t have many raw materials so we rely on our services and manufacturing and it is evenly divided. We still make our traditional products like cork and shoes, and then we have new technologies like laser and other IT industries.

The service industry is growing, but we have a problem, we are like Lithuania, we are away from the centre of the EU. Lithuania has the advantage that it can still trade with Russia and many other eastern European neighbours. We have only one neighbour, Spain, and otherwise all of our goods are exported by sea.

We have none of our own fuel reserves and energy is very expensive for us. We have to find a way to make that an advantage again. Historically our location was an advantage as we looked out towards the oceans, but as we turned to Europe we have became a country on the periphery. We have to increase our trans-Atlantic trading and look a bit more towards Africa. We have to act as a bridge to Africa, and we have done that in the past to South American as well. We need to use our position in the European family on a more global level. That is what we have focussed on now after we stabilised our position in Europe.

We had huge colonies overseas until recently and now they are mostly independent. We were never Europe oriented. So that was the great challenge for post-colonial Portugal – to learn to live as a country that in many ways never was. That was a unique case with Portugal. While Spain had colonies, they were always strong in Europe as well and very much based here.

We had to live in a country we were not used to, which never developed in itself and we have won that challenge now. Being part of the EU was essential and very important for us, and when people are having doubts about joining the EU, Portugal is a great example of how good the integration can be. We lost none of our culture and we can show that it is not inevitable. We proved that if you lose your identity, then it is the fault of the country and not the EU.

What is the state of trade between our two countries?

Lithuania sends some chemical products and wood, and some very specific items to Portugal, these are the major exports.

What I would like to see is more direct investment here, more of the global businesses. Joint ventures with Lithuanian companies. There was a furniture delegation looking for high quality goods that came here and had a very successful trip, but there is still some work to do.

How has Ambassador Corrêa adjusted to the difference in lifestyle between Lithuania and Portugal, and what do you most enjoy in Lithuania, and what do you most miss from home?

Life is easy here. I have been in Vilnius for two years and I have already noticed the changes since I have been here. They tell me that it had already changed a lot since independence.

You have access to everything like anywhere else in the world. It is a bit cold, but not a problem because the houses are built to deal with it well.

Vilnius is a pretty city, it has good character and it is a city you can live in very easily.

By Ray Vyšniauskas