The prime minister said on Tuesday that Portugal is working together to meet the target of 2% of GDP in national defense investment, as requested by NATO from its allies.
“We are coming together towards this goal that Portugal adopted at the 2014 Wales summit,” said António Costa at the entrance to the Atlantic Alliance summit in Lithuania. The head of government stated that he had the opportunity to “explain both the timetable and the conditions so that we can converge towards this goal”. It should be noted that the country expects to reach this goal by 2030.
In Vilnius, Costa highlighted economic growth in 2022 and 2023, which “exceeds best expectations”. “If GDP grows more and faster than we expect, we can’t always adjust the pace of Defense,” he said.
However, he said Portugal will achieve “one of two major objectives”. “It’s not just reaching 2% of GDP in defense investment, there was a very important target, in which Portugal was way behind, which is the fact that at least 20% of defense investment is in capabilities, so in equipment. not just running expenses,” he explained.
“We will achieve that goal this year and that is a very important change and has to do with the investment we have made in the capabilities of our armed forces,” said the prime minister. In the target of 2% of GDP in defense “we will make progress”.
At the beginning of the Atlantic Alliance summit, António Costa highlighted “three good news”, first referring to the removal of obstacles “for strengthening NATO with Sweden’s accession”, but also the fact that “a proposal was accepted from Portugal to pay very close attention to the entire southern flank” of the Atlantic Alliance”, referring to North Africa, the Sahel and the Middle East.
NATO, he said, “is not ignoring the need to develop other partnerships and establish other opportunities for cooperation in the South. It was something that caused us great concern and we pushed for it a lot and fortunately the final communiqué has been enshrined and in very positive language, with the new partners in North Africa, the Sahel and the Middle East.
The prime minister also stressed “the unity of all in support of Ukraine”, in its fight against international law, the right to sovereignty and territorial integrity, “and we all fight for peace to prevail by guaranteeing international law”.
“It was difficult for us to start this summit better, now I hope the summit does not spoil what started so well. Everything that could be complicated has now been resolved,” emphasized Costa.
Source: DN
