NATO Summit "started off in the best manner"

Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa claimed that the NATO Summit "started off in the best manner" by announcing Sweden and Finland will join, in a statement upon arrival of the NATO Heads of State and Government, which is being held in Madrid.

António Costa added that Portugal’s ratification of the Swedish and Finnish process will be "quite swift".

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, "it is more important than ever to strengthen this defence alliance" to "ensure long-lasting peace in the Euro-Atlantic area and, in particular, in Europe".

Military strengthening

The Prime Minister said that Portugal will take part "in a manner suited to the circumstances" the reinforcement of NATO’s defence. "We will wait for the NATO Command to precise the distribution of the necessary capabilities and our capabilities", he added.

The heads of the 30 countries will approve at the Madrid Summit the reinforcement of the military presence in the Eastern European states and the number of troops with high preparedness for deployment, in this case, from 40 thousand to 300 thousand soldiers, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

António Costa noted that this 8-fold increase of rapidly deployed troops is a global rise and "does not mean that each country will increase its availability 8-fold".

"We will take part in a manner threat is suited to our circumstances and the strong reinforcement we’ve made over these years, and which we will continue, with a view to meeting the goals that were set in 2014 to strengthen our defence investment", he stated.

Portugal heavily increased the participation of the national forces deployed under NATO and the Prime Minister said that "this year we are present in Romania, we will continue to have this and will keep abreast of the [general] reinforcement.

Rise in spending

The Prime Minister also said that Portugal cannot "objectively commit" to a date to reach the target of having 2% of GDP in defence spending, approved at the Glasgow Summit in 2014, after Russian forces occupied the Ukrainian region of Crimea.

Portugal will only "take on commitments we are sure to meet" and "in a serious way, we cannot objectively commit to a date, given the uncertainty felt in the global economy, with a huge rise in inflation, pressure on interest rates and the determination to heavily cut our public debt".

António Costa claimed that "at this moment, Portugal will meet next year the goal it set, in writing for 2024: reach 1.66% of GDP" for defence.

When Portugal took on the commitment to reach 1.66% in 2024, it was defined that it could be 1,.98% in that year, if the EU resources envisaged were made available.

However, the resources "that were envisaged at the time ceased to exist" and "new ones are under discussion". If new ones come, things may change. If they don’t, we cannot commit to, throughout this decade meet that goal" of 2%.