Montenegro agrees with Costa’s position and demands that the PS clarify its position.

The PSD president said he agrees with the position expressed by the Prime Minister of Portugal, who on Monday rejected scenarios for sending troops to Ukraine by NATO countries.

“I think the prime minister has expressed our position well: we have a front of assistance to Ukraine that is uncontested and includes financial assistance, humanitarian assistance, as well as military assistance to the best of our ability,” he said. Luis Montenegro, answering a question about the topic, at the end of the election campaign in Portalegre.

On Monday in Paris, after attending a high-level meeting on continued support for Ukraine convened by French President Emmanuel Macron to mark the second anniversary of the Russian invasion, António Costa was asked about statements made by his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico that some Western countries were considering bilateral agreements on sending troops to Ukraine.

The Portuguese Prime Minister assured that “there is no scenario in which this issue would arise” and added: “I don’t even see any NATO country [Organização do Tratado do Atlântico Norte] needs to be done, and above all, these are decisions that, if they are made, will have to be made collectively, because in the Collective Defense Alliance, creating risks is also in the common interest of everyone, but that was not the topic” at this meeting. meeting in Paris, he added.

“This is the right position, I agree with Dr. António Costa, the Prime Minister still in office. It might be interesting to ask whether the PS follows the position of the Portuguese Prime Minister and is comfortable designing an alliance with the PKP and BE, who do not agree with the government and our participation in NATO,” Montenegro said.

When asked to guarantee that if he becomes prime minister that there will be no Portuguese troops in Ukraine, the PSD president responded cautiously.

“I can say that I agree with the position of the Portuguese government that NATO is not an organization directly involved in the conflict,” he said.

In Paris, the prime minister compared Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor, saying he hoped international law would “prevail” on Ukrainian territory.

Regarding the statements of Emmanuel Macron, who said at the beginning of the high-level meeting that international leaders, including from the European Union, must prepare “for a Russian attack” on these countries and therefore must “do more” to support Ukraine to win the war , Antonio Costa stressed that “now is not the time to speculate.”

“We must prepare for various risks, but with great determination and awareness that the way we have been able to demonstrate today our ability to support the extraordinary efforts of the Ukrainian people in their own defense, in the defense of international law, is the best defense we will say for ourselves in future,” he concluded.

The Russian military offensive into Ukraine, launched on February 24, 2022, has plunged Europe into its most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).