TEHRAN – A two-day seminar and exhibition of historical documents will start on October 8th in Lisbon to mark 500 years of Iran-Portugal (diplomatic) ties and relations.

“Liga e Amizade …” (which literary translates to “Unity and Friendship”) has been selected as the motto of the event jointly organized by the Iranian Embassy in Lisbon, the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) - a Tehran-based foreign policy think tank affiliated to Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Portugal’s National Archive of Torre do Tombo (Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo), and the Diplomatic Institute of Portugal’s Ministry of Foreign Affair, the Iranian mission in Lisbon announced on October 2.

Tehran’s ambassador to Lisbon Morteza Damanpak Jami has said that his “main objective” is to develop the “already friendly” relations between the two countries. 

There have been, however, plenty of ups and downs in the common history of the two nations; one of the highlights, which also well documented, is the Persian–Portuguese conflict took place from 1507 to 1622; involved the Portuguese Empire and the Kingdom of Ormus, its armed vessels, on one side, and the Safavid Empire of Persia on the other.

Iran annually celebrates the Persian Gulf National Day, which marks the anniversary of the expulsion of colonial and foreign forces from the strategic water body in 1622, on the 10th day of Ordibehesht, the second month on the Iranian calendar, which fell on April 29 this year.

AFM/MG