O primeiro discurso de Obama em Portugal

No Palácio de Belém, onde se encontrou com o Chefe de Estado português, Cavaco Silva, Barack Obama proferiu o seu primeiro discurso em solo nacional, onde reafirmou a forte parceria entre os dois países e agradeceu o esforço das forças armadas portuguesas no Afeganistão. Além do vídeo com os highlights, aqui fica a transcrição, íntegra, do discurso do Presidente dos Estados Unidos.

Thank you for your warm welcome. Thank you to the people of Lisbon and Portugal for welcoming us to this beautiful, ancient city.

It is very fitting that we are gathering here in Lisbon. It was from here that the great explorers set out to discover new worlds. It was here, a gateway of Europe, through which generations of immigrants and travelers have passed and bound our countries together. It was here that Europeans came together to sign the landmark treaty that strengthened their union.

Now we’ve come to Lisbon again to revitalize the NATO alliance for the 21st century and to strengthen the partnership between the United States and the European Union.

Mr. President, I thank you and all the people of Portugal for everything you’ve done to make these summits a success.

Our meeting was also an opportunity to reaffirm the strong partnership between the United States and Portugal. President Cavaco Silva is commander of Portugal’s armed forces, and will be representing Portugal at the NATO Summit.

We pledged to continue the excellent cooperation between our militaries, especially Lajes Field in the Azores, which provides critical support to American and NATO forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I expressed my gratitude to the Portuguese armed forces who are serving alongside us in Afghanistan. And here in Lisbon, I look forward to working with our NATO and our ISAF partners as we move towards a new phase, a transition to Afghan responsibility that begins in 2011, with Afghan forces taking the lead for security across Afghanistan by 2014.

So this summit is an important opportunity for us to align an approach to transition in Afghanistan.

Finally, we discussed ways to expand our bilateral cooperation. On the economic front, we’re looking to deepen our partnership in trade and investment, in science and technology. I am very impressed with the outstanding work that Portugal has done in areas like clean energy, and we think that we can collaborate more.

On the security front, Portugal’s upcoming seat at the U.N. Security Council will be an opportunity to advance peace and security that both our nations seek around the world.

So, Mr. President, I want to thank you and the Portuguese people for your hospitality. I’m confident that we’re going to have two successful summits and that we will continue to deepen an extraordinarily strong partnership between the United States and Portugal -- one that’s based not just on relations between heads of state, not just on the basis of treaties, but based on an enormous warmth between our two peoples; one that in part is forged by the wonderful contributions that are made by Portuguese Americans each and every day.

So thank you so much, Mr. President.