Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa awarded this public higher education establishment, which trains merchant marine officers and senior staff in the maritime-port sector, the title of honorary member of the Order of Infante D. Henrique, considering that "it is the obvious recognition for an institution like this".

The decoration was awarded at the end of a ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Escola Superior Náutica Infante D. Henrique, in Paço de Arcos, in the municipality of Oeiras, district of Lisbon.

"An institution like this, which corresponds to an old national vocation, which has a very rich genesis, which becomes autonomous when it should become autonomous, which knows how to make the change when it is necessary to make the change, which has a team spirit and which is an institution that is here to stay, it should receive the recognition of the Portuguese State", said the Head of State.

The Order of Infante D. Henrique is intended to distinguish those who have rendered relevant services to Portugal, in the country and abroad, as well as services in the expansion of Portuguese culture or for the knowledge of Portugal, its history and its values.

Speaking at this ceremony, the President of the Republic once again defended that Portugal has a "universal vocation" and that its maritime dimension constitutes "a geostrategic added value, a political added value, an economic added value, a social added value, a human added value".

"It gave the diaspora spread around the world, it gives the weight of this diaspora, it gave the communities that speak the same language and are now independent states, it gave our projection as a platform between continents, oceans, cultures and civilizations. It even gave the prominence in several international institutions, which would not exist otherwise, but which do exist. It makes us mediators in all circumstances", he added.

In this regard, he mentioned that "President Mário Soares has been defending the establishment in Portugal of an international organization focused on the sea for a long time, and it is a struggle that successive governments have had, and which has partial success, but which transforms Portugal into an irreplaceable axis in terms of oceans".

According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, "it has been well chosen, for a long time", Infante D. Henrique as the patron of this school, "because it represents what it has been throughout the centuries, is today and will always be a national design".

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