Portuguese PM to visit India next year

Panaji, Aug 15: Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa will visit India in January next year and is likely to make a trip to Goa, a former Portuguese enclave with which he has ancestral connections.

Consul General of Portugal for Goa Rui Baceira told reporters today that the Portuguese Prime Minister will be visiting India in January 2017, with his itinerary including Goa and Bangalore.

"The Portuguese Prime Minister is coming to India in January (2017). He is of Goan Indian origin. We are pleased to have him here," Baceira told reporters on the sidelines of Independence Day event here.

Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar had in March told the State Legislative Assembly that he would invite Costa to Goa. Goa had remained a Portuguese colony for over 400 years before it was liberated and integrated to the Indian Union in 1961.

Antonio's grandfather, Luis Afonso Maria da Costa, hailed from Goa. Though born in Mozambique, which was also a Portuguese colony, he spent most of his youth in Goa, before moving with his family to Portugal after 1961.

There were celebrations in Goa when Costa was elected the Portuguese Prime Minister last year.

PTI