The President of the Government, António Costa, said this Wednesday that Portugal will participate “in an appropriate manner to the circumstances” of the country in the announced reinforcement of NATO troops.
“We are waiting for the NATO command to make a precision of the distribution of the capacities that are needed and our contribution”, said António Costa upon arrival at the NATO summit that starts this Wednesday in Madrid.
At this summit, NATO will approve the reinforcement of its presence in Eastern European countries and the number of troops in reserve, in this case, from 40,000 to more than 300,000 soldiers, according to the secretary general of the NATO Treaty Organization. North Atlantic (NATO). acronym in English), Jens Stoltenberg.
António Costa stressed that this the eightfold increase in troops on standby is a global increase and “this does not mean that each country multiplies its availability by eight”.
We will participate in the appropriate way given our circumstances and the strong reinforcement that we have been making over the years, which we will continue, in order to meet the objectives that were assumed in 2014 to reinforce our investment in defense”, he said. .
The Prime Minister recalled that Portugal has “greatly increased” this year its participation in the national forces deployed within the NATO framework.
“This year we have a strong presence in Romania, we will surely continue to have it and we will accompany this reinforcement,” he said.
Source: Observadora
