Editing Foreign relations of Portugal (section)

==International organizations==
[[File:Flickr - europeanpeoplesparty - EPP Sumiit 15 May 2006 (3).jpg|thumb|240px|[[Angela Merkel]] and [[José Manuel Barroso]]]]
Portugal was a founding member of [[NATO]] (1949), [[Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development]] (1961), and [[European Free Trade Area]] (1960); it left the latter in 1986 to join the [[European Economic Community]], which would become the [[European Union]] (EU) in 1993. In 1996, it co-founded the [[Community of Portuguese Language Countries]] (CPLP). The country is a member state of the [[United Nations]] since 1955.

Recently, the primacy of the United States and inter-governmental organizations such as NATO and the [[United Nations]] have also been paramount in the affirmation of Portugal abroad.

Portugal has been a significant beneficiary of the EU. It was among the top beneficiaries of the [[EU-15]] between 1995 and 2004 (only behind Spain and [[Greece]] in absolute terms, and behind [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] and Greece in a [[per capita]] basis).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.euractiv.com/en/enlargement/germany-sweden-largest-net-contributors-eu-budget/article-116165|title=Germany and Sweden largest net contributors to EU budget|website=euractiv.com|access-date=3 December 2008|archive-date=31 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171231041656/http://www.euractiv.com/en/enlargement/germany-sweden-largest-net-contributors-eu-budget/article-116165|url-status=dead}}</ref> Portugal is a proponent of [[European integration]] and held the presidency of the European Union for the second time during the first half of 2000, and again in the second half of 2007. Portugal used its term to launch a dialogue between the EU and [[Africa]] and to begin to take steps to make the European economy dynamic and competitive. In 2002, the [[euro]] began to circulate as Portugal's currency. [[José Sócrates]], as [[Prime Minister of Portugal]], presided over the rotative [[Presidency of the Council of the European Union]] for the period July–December 2007.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.eu2007.pt/UE/vEN/ |title=EU Presidency |access-date=16 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110411175943/http://www.eu2007.pt/UE/ven/ |archive-date=11 April 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In this post, Sócrates and his team focused on the EU-[[Brazil]] ([[1st EU-Brazil summit]]) and EU-[[African Union]] ([[2007 Africa-EU Summit]]) relations, as well as in the approval of the [[Treaty of Lisbon]].

Portugal was a founding member of NATO; it is an active member of the alliance by, for example, contributing proportionally large contingents in [[Balkans|Balkan]] peacekeeping forces. Portugal proposed the creation of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) to improve its ties with other Portuguese-speaking countries. Additionally, Portugal has participated, along with Spain, in a series of [[Ibero-American Summit]]. Portugal held the chairmanship of the [[Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe]] (OSCE) for the year 2002. The chairman-in-office was Portuguese Foreign Minister [[António Martins da Cruz]].