The President of the Republic invites Portugal to monitor the activities of groups operating in Africa

The President of the Republic said on Thursday that Portugal “has experience” of international missions in Africa and can monitor the activities of “non-African” groups operating on the continent, without specifying how.

Marcelo Rebelo de Souza did not mention Wagner, the main mercenary group operating in Africa, in countries such as Mali or the Central African Republic (CAR), but wanted to comment on a question posed to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky about Russian paramilitaries. .

“Portugal has experience of intervening in international missions, namely in Africa, which allows it to accompany the interventions of non-African groups in those societies and states in which we carry out the mission of political stabilization,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Souza. without specifying what you mean by “follow-up”.

At a joint press conference with Marcelo Rebelo de Souza, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was asked about the alleged death of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin on Wednesday following the crash of a plane making calls between Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Zelensky did not elaborate on Prigozhin’s likely death, but noted that Ukraine “has nothing to do with this situation.” The Ukrainian president even joked about this: “When Ukraine spoke with countries around the world about aircraft, we didn’t want to say that. Honestly. We had something completely different in mind and wanted support.”

The President of Ukraine asked for the support of Portugal, which has strong ties with Africa through the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), which includes countries such as Cape Verde, a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). help convey the need to support Ukraine in the fight against the Russian invasion.

There are several African countries that are neutral on the conflict, supportive of Moscow, or even ambivalent, as in the case of Mozambique.

The head of the Portuguese state was also asked what additional guarantees of support Portugal could give to Ukraine, namely, sending F-16 fighter jets.

“F-16… I don’t go into details, in terms of military cooperation, apart from what is already known, and what is already known is that Portugal has already provided them as part of its military cooperation so far. , training and everything related to infrastructure and services in the field of aviation resources,” he commented.

Until today, the position of Portugal is to participate in the training of Ukrainian pilots in the handling of F-16 fighters, as well as in their maintenance, but it does not raise the issue of the availability of combat aircraft.

The Ministry of Defense made several references to all of Portugal’s F-16s, which are on alert and participate in Portuguese air patrols and NATO missions.