LISBON, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Portugal Cai Run said here on Wednesday that relations between China and Portugal is currently in the best period of history with valuable development opportunities.

He made the comments in a joint interview with Chinese media on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

High-level exchanges have been frequent between the two sides, and political mutual trust has continued to deepen, said Cai.

Portugal is the first European Union country to formally establish a "blue partnership" with China, the first European country to issue China UnionPay cards by a major local financial institution, and the first country on the European continent to jointly build the Luban Workshop with China, which is a project to provide state-of-the-art technical and vocational training named after a famous carpenter in Chinese history, he added.

The Sino-Portuguese relations are increasingly showing great development potential and good development prospects, he said.

Cai also said by celebrating the anniversary, China and Portugal will continue making efforts to guide the development of the bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, so as to promote the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Portugal.