Navy Chief of Staff Enrique Gouveia y Melo said this Sunday that the Portuguese navy is undergoing a change, a renewal that is “operational, structural and genetic” and aimed at “Portugal being realized at sea”.
Speaking to the Minister of National Defense at the Navy Day ceremony in Porto, Enrique Gouveia y Melo mentioned that “the whole fleet is a wider fleet”, and addressing the more than 500 soldiers who were on parade in the customs building, on the river Doru, he said, “We are changing the navy and you are the actors in this new reality.”
“This is a new navy for the task of Portugal: to occupy, explore and guarantee to the Portuguese the use of the sea. This plan is my true north for me, and we will do everything to ensure that Portugal fulfills its mission at sea. structural and genetic changes occur. [a ser] and will be implemented,” the admiral said.
Gouveia e Melo stressed that in 2022, Portuguese ships flew missions for 4,867 days, a “really exceptional” number for a fleet of the size of Portugal.
“In a country full of needs, it is often difficult to find a way to strike the right balance between the effort, availability, skills that the navy requires and its operations at sea when they are balanced by appropriate contributions,” he said.
The Chief of Staff of the Navy concluded the message with the conviction that “this balance between rights and duties deserves the closest attention, especially, as today, in moments of high international tension.”
This year, Porto hosted a Navy Day celebration with over 30 initiatives including ship visits, sea baptism, exhibitions, concerts and a parade of 500 soldiers that took place next to customs in front of thousands of people today.
In the program, running from Thursday, one of the highlights of the events was the opportunity to visit the Sagres school ship, moored on the Douro River, free of charge, which has not been seen for 25 years.
A source in the organization told the Lusa news agency that more than 7,500 visits to the training ship were recorded on Saturday.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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