Santos Silva emphasized Portugal’s commitment to expanding the coalition supporting Kyiv

The President of the Assembly of the Republic assured this Wednesday in Kyiv that Portugal will continue its efforts to expand the coalition supporting Ukraine with countries in Africa and Latin America that feel that the war is far away.

In a speech delivered in the Kiev Parliament and sent to the Lusa news agency, Augusto Santos Silva said that these Portuguese efforts are aimed at “making it clear that the borders of Ukraine today are the borders of freedom, security and peace of the whole world.”

Despite the fact that the coalition of countries that politically and diplomatically support Ukraine, “without sophism condemning Russian aggression”, is “very broad”, Santos Silva considered it necessary to go further and take advantage of the fact that Portuguese diplomacy can bring “real value”. added” to the struggle of the Ukrainian people.

“We still need to expand it. Constantly speaking with the countries of the South, with the countries of Africa and Latin America, which are victims of the economic consequences of the war, but which sometimes perceive it as a distant, only European issue. what Portugal has done and will do,” he assured in a speech that opened the parliamentary session of the Ukrainian parliament, his press service reports.

Santos Silva at the very beginning of his speech outlined the “main purpose” of his visit to Kiev, during which he was accompanied by deputies from four parties, as well as meetings with President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Prime Minister of Ukraine before visiting Kiev. parliament.

“To express the deep solidarity of the Portuguese people with the Ukrainian people, reaffirming Portugal’s full support for Ukraine in its struggle for the inalienable right to its independence and territorial integrity,” he said, recalling the position “unanimously” expressed by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Parliament and Government on the day of the start war, February 24, 2022

The President of the Portuguese Parliament emphasized that “war is a horror”, repeating that “when one of the parties provokes a war by attacking the other side militarily, the latter has not only the right but also the duty to defend himself with weapons.”

“The time has therefore come to support Ukraine’s defense by providing Ukraine with the weapons and equipment it needs to defend it,” he said, pointing to Russia’s aggression against civilians and other war crimes to defend that “the international community must act to bring those responsible to justice.” for which “European and Atlantic unity” is needed.

Rejecting the various false arguments the Kremlin uses to justify the aggression, such as “historical law” or the threat to Moscow posed by NATO expansion, Augusto Santos Silva reiterated Portugal’s support for Ukraine’s European Union accession process.

“Portugal and Ukraine are two close countries. Both European and both Western. With growing ties between peoples, based mainly on the size and excellent integration of the Ukrainian community living in Portugal, which speaks both Ukrainian and Portuguese,” he said.

For Santos Silva, these ties “have become even stronger now, thanks to the process of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.”

“Portugal supports this process and advocates that the European Union implement the reforms required by this new dynamic of enlargement. Ties between our two countries are also strengthening as cooperation between Ukraine and NATO, an alliance of which Portugal is a founding member.” – said the Chairman of the Assembly of the Republic.