Portugal will be represented at the NATO summit, which will take place from Tuesday to Thursday in Washington, by Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, Minister of State and Foreign Affairs Paulo Rangel and Minister of National Defence Nuno Melo.
On Wednesday, the Portuguese Prime Minister will attend a dinner hosted by US President Joe Biden for heads of state and government attending the NATO summit at the White House.
The summit, which runs from Tuesday to Thursday, will take place in the North American capital and mark the 75th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the same city where, in 1949, twelve countries, including Portugal, signed the treaty to ensure their collective defense.
According to the preliminary program of the Prime Minister’s trip to the United States, Montenegro will arrive in Washington on Tuesday afternoon (15:20 local time, 20:20 Lisbon time) and will immediately take part in the ceremony dedicated to the 75th anniversary of NATO, which will include speeches by the organization’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and President Joe Biden.
On Tuesday, the head of government also plans to have dinner at Portugal’s official residence in Washington.
On Wednesday, Montenegro, accompanied by the ministers of foreign affairs and defense, will participate in the official welcoming ceremony of the NATO Secretary General and the US President to the heads of state and government present in Washington, and at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, the main political decision-making body of the allies.
Montenegro will then travel, accompanied by his wife, to a dinner at the White House, offered to heads of state and government, and, according to the program published by NATO, separate dinners will be organized for foreign ministers present in Washington – proposed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken – at the US Library of Congress, as well as for defense ministers at Fort McNair, one of the oldest bases of the US Army.
On the final day of the NATO summit, Montenegro, Rangel and Nuno Melo will attend another meeting of the North Atlantic Council, this time with partners from the Indo-Pacific region and the European Union, followed by a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC).
In 2024, NATO will have 32 member states (the most recent being Finland and Sweden, which joined during Russia’s war against Ukraine) and will be represented at the highest levels in Washington.
The summit, marking NATO’s 75th anniversary, will also be the last for current Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who will be replaced by former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Under Norway’s Stoltenberg, who took office on 1 October 2014, NATO has gained four new members, adding Montenegro (2017), North Macedonia (2020), Finland (2023) and Sweden (2024).
NATO’s Secretary General outlined three central themes for the Washington summit: strengthening member states’ defence and allied deterrence; supporting Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself, which she called the Atlantic Alliance’s “most urgent task”; and continuing to strengthen NATO’s global partnership “especially in the Indo-Pacific region,” inviting the leaders of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea to attend.
The support package for Ukraine, which is set to provide 40 billion euros a year in annual aid from allies, will also include NATO taking on the task of coordinating the military aid the country receives to defend itself against a Russian invasion, as well as, for example, training initiatives for its forces through a command headed by a three-star general and some 700 people working at NATO headquarters in Germany.
Portugal is one of the 12 countries from Europe and North America that founded NATO in 1949.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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