POrtugal – which was one of the 12 founding countries, at the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty, on April 4, 1949 – announced in July last year the reinforcement of 1.5 million euros in its contribution to the fund for the partnership with the countries in the southern neighborhood, to contribute to the additional financial effort in NATO’s collective defense mechanisms.
This commitment was combined with the sending of military personnel to Atlantic Alliance missions in Lithuania and Romania, as well as the continued contribution to the security of Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion, with the provision of equipment and military training, particularly pilots of F-16 fighter planes.
This week – when the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty is celebrated on Thursday – Portugal sent 95 Air Force personnel and four F-16 aircraft to a mission in the Baltic, in an initiative that the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces , Nunes da Fonseca, considered it to be a “sign of the Alliance’s collective determination” against Russian expansionist aspirations in Europe.
At the end of the third quarter of a century of NATO integration, Portugal has permanent representation at the organization’s general officer level, as well as several elements in the Alliance’s headquarters, including in its main operational unit – the SHAPE barracks, in Belgium .
When it was a founding member, in 1949, Portugal even created its own structure, with a unit in Santa Margarida, attached to NATO, reinforcing its weapons power, particularly with the contribution of the United States.
Collaboration has been permanent – with a 13-year break, when the Portuguese regime was involved in wars against independence movements in Africa – and since the April 1974 revolution it has made an effort to reveal its commitment to the Atlantic Alliance.
However, Portugal is one of the countries that has not yet reached the minimum value of investment in defense, established at the Vilnius summit at a minimum of 2% of Gross Domestic Product, being only close to 1.5%.
The Government that was replaced this week by the executive led by Luís Montenegro had committed to reaching the minimum value “as soon as possible” and it will be the task of the new Minister of Defense, Nuno Melo, to help record this figure, which the State- Major of the Armed Forces has already said it is important to fill some gaps in military equipment, including replacing the F-16s.
However, during the election campaign, the new prime minister, Luís Montenegro, assumed that reaching this 2% investment target would be particularly difficult during the legislature that is now beginning.
“It is clear that Portugal is committed to reinforcing investment, [mas] It is not possible to do it immediately, I have doubts that I will be able to do it in the next legislature”, said Montenegro, during one of the electoral campaign debates.
This intention to increase investment fits in with popular support for Portugal’s presence in NATO, as a recent survey by the Atlantic Alliance revealed that, if there were now a referendum on this matter, 83% of Portuguese people would agree with this participation, while 74% feel safer because of this participation.
Portugal is even the fifth country in the group of 32 in which the population most supports the presence in the Atlantic Alliance, after Albania, Lithuania, Norway and Poland.
In terms of political positioning, Portugal assumes that it will seek to take advantage of its geography and its privileged partnerships with the African continent and, recently, the Portuguese ambassador to NATO, Pedro Costa Pereira, argued that the Atlantic Alliance should strengthen its “dimension south”, at a time when the war in Ukraine shifted attention to the east.
“Our objective must be for NATO’s agenda to have a southern dimension, when the Atlantic Alliance’s concern is to be versatile on all fronts”, said Costa Pereira, during a conference entitled “NATO and European Security and Defense” .
At the same time, Portugal uses the strategic positioning of the Lajes Base, in the Azores, as a negotiating point with the United States within NATO, although Washington has devalued this North American outpost in Europe.
In 2015, the then US ambassador to Portugal, Robert Sherman, described the Lajes Base as a “gas pump” in the Atlantic, in statements that were read as some coldness in Lisbon, but for many, the Azores remain fundamental for the security of the North Atlantic, which was confirmed by the recent return to that military base of P-8 anti-submarine aircraft.
At the same time, the North American commander of the Lajes Base, Brian Hardeman, assumed that this NATO military unit in the Azores constitutes a “privileged point” to provide support to Ukraine, in the military aid that the Atlantic Alliance has guaranteed to Kiev in the last two years.
Hardeman even admitted the strengthening of the US position in the Azores, remembering that this attitude is also due to the recognition of Portugal’s commitment to the North Atlantic defense effort and NATO’s broader commitments.
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