Portugal has established itself as a loyal ally during the 75 years of the Alliance’s existence.

Portugal is positioning itself as a committed NATO ally, pledging to strengthen its financial participation in the Partnership Fund’s participation with neighboring countries to the south as the Alliance celebrates its 75th anniversary.

Portugal, which was one of the 12 founding countries when the North Atlantic Treaty was signed on April 4, 1949, announced last July that it would increase its contribution to the North Atlantic Treaty Partnership Fund by €1.5 million. southern neighborhood to contribute to additional financial efforts under NATO’s collective defense mechanisms.

This commitment was combined with the sending of military personnel to the Atlantic Alliance missions in Lithuania and Romania, as well as a continued contribution to the security of Ukraine in the face of a Russian invasion, with the provision of equipment and military training, in particular for F-16 fighter pilots.

This week, as the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty is celebrated on Thursday, Portugal has sent 95 air force personnel and four F-16 aircraft to a mission in the Baltics on the initiative of the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces. Nunez da Fonseca considered this “a sign of the Alliance’s collective determination” against Russia’s expansionist aspirations in Europe.

At the end of the third quarter century of NATO integration, Portugal has a permanent presence at the level of the organization’s general officer, as well as several elements at the Alliance’s headquarters, including its main operational unit, SHAPE Barracks, in Belgium. As one of the founders, in 1949, Portugal even created its own structure with a unit in Santa Margarida attached to NATO, which strengthened its military power, especially thanks to the contribution of the United States.

Cooperation was constant – with a 13-year break when the Portuguese regime fought wars against independence movements in Africa – and after the April 1974 revolution it attempted to demonstrate its commitment to the Atlantic Alliance. However, Portugal is one of the countries that has not yet reached the defense investment minimum set at the Vilnius Summit at a minimum of 2% of gross domestic product, and is only around 1.5%.

The government, which this week was replaced by the chief executive led by Luis Montenegro, has committed to achieving the minimum value “as soon as possible”, and the task of the new Defense Minister Nuno Melo will be to help fix this figure, which the State Major of the Armed Forces has already stated. that it is important to fill some gaps in military equipment, including replacing the F-16.

However, during the election campaign, new Prime Minister Luis Montenegro suggested that achieving this 2% investment target would be particularly difficult during the incoming legislature.

“It is clear that Portugal is committed to increasing investment, [mas] It is impossible to do this right away, I have doubts that I will be able to do this in the next legislature,” Montenegro said during one of the election campaign debates.

This intention to increase investment is consistent with public support for Portugal’s presence in NATO, as a recent Atlantic Alliance poll found that if a referendum were held on the issue now, 83% of Portuguese would agree with this participation, while 74% feel more safety through such participation.

Portugal is even the fifth country in the group of 32 countries whose population is most supportive of being in the Atlantic Alliance, after Albania, Lithuania, Norway and Poland. In terms of political positioning, Portugal suggests that it will seek to take advantage of its geographical position and its privileged partnership with the African continent, and Portugal’s NATO Ambassador Pedro Costa Pereira recently said that the Atlantic Alliance must strengthen its “dimension”. south,” while the war in Ukraine shifted attention to the east.

“Our goal should be for NATO’s agenda to have a southern dimension, while the Atlantic Alliance’s mission is to be universal on all fronts,” Costa Pereira said during a conference entitled “NATO and European Security and Defense.”

At the same time, Portugal is using the strategic location of the Lajes base in the Azores as a negotiating point with the United States within NATO, even though Washington has devalued the North American outpost in Europe.

In 2015, then-US Ambassador to Portugal Robert Sherman described the Lajes base as a “gas station” in the Atlantic, in statements that were perceived as a bit cold in Lisbon, but for many the Azores remains fundamental to North Atlantic security, as has been borne out by the military’s recent return to R-8 anti-submarine aircraft base.

At the same time, the commander of the North American Lajes base, Brian Hardeman, suggested that this NATO military unit in the Azores represents a “privileged point” to support Ukraine in the military assistance that the Atlantic Alliance guaranteed to Kyiv. over the past two years. Hardeman even acknowledged the strengthening of the US position in the Azores, recalling that this attitude was also driven by recognition of Portugal’s commitment to defense efforts in the North Atlantic and broader NATO commitments.