Foreign relations of Portugal holds claim to the disputed territory of Olivença on the Portugal-Spain border. Foreign relations of Portugal Foreign relations of Portugal are linked with its historical role as a major player in the Age of Discovery and the holder of the now defunct Portuguese Empire.Portugal is a European Union member country and a founding member of NATO. It is a committed proponent of European integration and transatlantic relations. Augusto Santos Silva is the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal. Historically, the focus of Portuguese diplomacy has been to preserve its independence, "vis-à-vis", the danger of annexation by Spain, and the
Portugal Lusitania and part of Gallaecia, after 45 BC until 298 AD. The region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by "Homo sapiens", who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, did form organized societies. Neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. It is believed by some scholars that early in the first millennium BC, several waves of Celts invaded Portugal from Central Europe and inter-married with the local populations, forming different