Portugal’s government has said it refuses to initiate any process to pay reparations for atrocities committed during transatlantic slavery and the colonial era, contrary to earlier comments from President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

From the 15th to the 19th century, 6 million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported across the Atlantic by Portuguese vessels and sold into slavery, primarily in Brazil, the Guardian reported. 

Rebelo de Sousa had said on Saturday that Portugal could use several methods to pay reparations, such as cancelling the debt of former colonies and providing financing.

The government said in a statement sent to the Portuguese news agency Lusa it wanted to “deepen mutual relations, respect for historical truth and increasingly intense and close cooperation, based on the reconciliation of brotherly peoples”.

But it added it had “no process or program of specific actions” for paying reparations, noting this line was followed by previous governments.

Portugal’s colonial era lasted more than five centuries, with Angola, Mozambique, Brazil, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, East Timor and some territories in Asia subject to Portuguese rule.