De Sousa spoke at the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon at the launch of the book “Ten Million and One” by the former US ambassador in Portugal, Roberto Sherman.

On the day before welcoming the president of China, Xi Jinping, De Sousa pointed out that Portugal was “one of the very few” European countries “that can understand you [USA] fully, that are really transatlantic.”

In a speech almost entirely in English, De Sousa said: “We, Portuguese, love the United States of America.”

Regarding the book, De Sousa praised Sherman but showed some divergence on the chapter about the president of the regional government of the Azores, Vasco Cordeiro.

In his opinion, Sherman was “a little bit unfair concerning president Vasco Cordeiro” since the two of them “never understood each other, never.”

On the other hand, De Sousa said that Sherman “exaggerates in his credits of the Portuguese president.”

“But those are small details in an unforgettable book,” De Sousa said.

“You are a priority for Portugal and we are, at least should be, a priority for the United States of America. But, at the same time, it is a way of inspiring an even stronger alliance, an even stronger friendship,” thanking Sherman and his wife, Kim.

De Sousa treated Sherman as an “honourable Portuguese”, for “the love for the history and the [Portuguese] way of being.”

“A very, very, very close friend of ours. He is one of the best friends of Portugal I have ever met,” he said.