Costa visits Portuguese soldiers participating in NATO missions in Lithuania

Prime Minister António Costa is visiting Portuguese Air Force soldiers stationed in Lithuania as part of a NATO mission this Monday ahead of the start of the Atlantic Alliance summit in Vilnius.

The Prime Minister will visit several combat aircraft, namely the F-16 fighters used by the Portuguese military in the Baltic Air Policing (BAT) mission to patrol the airspace.

After that, António Costa is heading to Vilnius to participate in the NATO summit, which will last until Wednesday, and one of the main topics of which will be Ukraine’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Portugal participates with 118 soldiers and five aircraft (including four F-16Ms) in two Atlantic Alliance missions: Security Measures and BAP.

The first mission began in 2014 and consists of a set of measures for “a permanent presence on land, at sea and in the air, inside and along the eastern border of the union territory, aimed at strengthening defense, deterring threats, calming the population and deterring potential aggression.” .

Portugal and Romania replaced France and Germany in the BAP in March, and at the end of July, two other NATO member states will be in charge of air patrols.

BAP is an air policing mission that aims to protect union territory and populations from “threats and air and missile attacks” and can also provide support to civilian aircraft, for example when they lose contact with air traffic control.

Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in 2022, the Allies have increased their presence on NATO’s eastern flank, namely in countries such as Romania, in which Portugal participates in two missions aimed at helping to deter and defend the Atlantic. Alliance: “Individual Forward Presence” and “Heightened Vigilance”.