“Travelling with President Marcelo is like being on Mick Jagger’s roadshow”, com “mass of humanity that wants to meet him, wants to engage with him”, recalled George Glass, in an interview with Lusa.

Mr Glass was with Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on two occasions in the USA in June, at the 10 June commemorations and a visit to the White House and he was very positive about the visits.

“President Marcelo represents Portugal to the rest of the world and he is very engaging. It was a lot of fun”, the ambassador, who has been in Lisbon for 10 months, told Lusa.

After having accompanied the visits of Marcelo and the prime minister, António Costa, George Glass considered that Portugal has a “tremendous opportunity” to affirm its brand in the USA.

He said the two countries were at a historically high point in their relationship, giving the example of the number of American tourists in the country.

The statistics show that the number of US tourists in Portugal has tripled over the last three years.

George Glass even quoted the US president, Donald Trump, in a recent meeting he had with the Portuguese president: “Our relationship goes beyond the economy or defence, it is in our blood. We have more than a million citizens with Portuguese forefathers in our country”.