P
rince
of
A
sturias
A
wards
1981-2014. S
peeches
5
Today, international cooperation is an absolute necessity. Following the globalization processes
now in progress, the world has shrunk and there is a general feeling that everything in everyone’s
business. The very serious problems now facing us at the end of the millennium, such as poverty,
organized crime, lack of belief in essential values, ecological aggression, intolerance, the return
of certain types of xenophobia, religious fundamentalism and ignorance, cannot be satisfactorily
solved without cooperation. Cooperation implies a culture of peace and solidarity (in the words
of Federico Mayor) and is based on acknowledgement of the dignity of men and their essential
equality, regardless of race, sex, creed or social condition.
Mário Soares
—
Prince of Asturias
Award for International
Cooperation
1995
Mário Soares was President of the
Republic of Portugal from 1986 to
1996 and Prime Minister between
1976 and 1977, in 1978 and between
1983 and 1985.
—
Excerpt from the speech given on
the occasion of receiving the Prince
of Asturias Award for International
Cooperation on 27/10/1995.
