On January 31, the UK left the European Union. This was not an ending, but a new and ambitious beginning in our relationship with European partners. It was a very important moment as we delivered on the promise made to the British people more than three years ago in the 2016 referendum. The rights of our citizens have been protected. We left as a United Kingdom, free to decide our own future and establish partnerships with old allies and new friends around the world, based on solid friendship, shared values and mutual interests. We see these new steps as the turning of a page.

But even though we have left the EU, we remain strongly committed to working closely and constructively with all European countries. We want a relationship with the EU based on friendly cooperation between sovereign equals, centred on free trade. Because such cooperation is vital to international stability, helping us to address major global threats and to promote our common objectives.

In particular, we want to increase our commitment to combatting climate change, together with Portugal and the other European countries that are as ambitious as we are when it comes to climate and the environment. This year we will host COP26 in Glasgow – the next UN Climate Change Conference. We must act together to accelerate measures to reduce emissions, protect our environment, and promote adaptation to the consequences we are seeing around the world. We need countries to increase their level of ambition so that collectively we get closer to a path that meets the general temperature targets of the Paris Agreement – to limit the rise to well below 2ºC and to balance the global temperature in the second half of the century.

With Portugal, we want to build a modern partnership aimed towards the future, based on the very special historical and friendly relationship that has united our two countries and our peoples for several centuries. The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, which had the Treaty of Windsor of 1386 as its highest point, is the oldest extant diplomatic alliance between two countries in the world.

We share very important values such as respect for human rights and a rules based international system, as well as strategic interests and global perspectives, resulting from our Atlantic geography. We also have common concerns about issues such as security and defence, and the importance of progress in science and innovation. We are both members of NATO, the OSCE and the UN. There is great potential to strengthen relations between the English and Portuguese speaking worlds, namely through our observer status at CPLP.

Our business relationship is solid and growing. The UK is Portugal’s 4th largest export market; and we are the 4th largest foreign investor in Portugal. In addition to traditional sectors such as food, wine and textiles, there is a lot of bilateral trade and investment in more innovative sectors, such as digital services, life sciences, creative arts and renewable energies. We will do everything we can to continue to maintain intense trade relations.

The expansion of trade can strengthen companies, create jobs, reduce the cost of living and expand consumer choice. These options must be available not only to Europe, but also to the poorest countries in the world. We must act as strong moral anchors, as a force for good in the world. This is an opportunity for the UK to demonstrate that we can be even greater allies, neighbours and friends in Europe.

For all these reasons, I am convinced that our citizens and our companies will continue to maintain a very close relationship in the future; and that our governments will maintain very close cooperation on the issues that matter to our countries and that are important for the security and prosperity of citizens in Europe and the world.