The president of the republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, showed his agreement on Wednesday to send the three Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, stating that Portugal’s aid is “in line” compared to the capacity of other countries.
“That was what the Prime Minister communicated to the President of the Republic and as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces I agreed,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on the sidelines of the Bial Prize for Clinical Medicine ceremony, which took place at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP).
The head of state stressed that Portugal’s aid is “in line with what makes sense”, compared to each country’s capacity and will allow “immediate response to a situation”, given Ukraine’s need for that military equipment.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa conceded the possibility that “later” the government would consider “other additional hypotheses” for help.
“It does not mean that the government cannot consider other additional hypotheses later on, but for now the government’s proposal and the Portuguese contribution seemed good to me,” he added.
The Prime Minister, António Costa, announced today that Portugal is implementing the maintenance plan for Leopard 2 tanks and that it is able to deliver three to Ukraine in March.
Asked about the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Thursday’s European Council meeting in Brussels, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stressed that “one cannot create expectations and then be frustrated”, referring to Ukraine’s expectations, but also of the leaders of the European Union who are negotiating.
“This means that it is a difficult process, but one that must be seen with good faith and determination, because it involves many changes. It is about political changes, the center of Europe with the accession of new members to the East will shift further east, institutional changes, the accession of Ukraine means the accession of a country that has and will have a very significant weight in the European Union in terms of its presence in the bodies,” he said, noting that the accession of new countries will also affect the “functioning” of the European Union.
“A magnification of 27 [países]who are now over 30 [países] it is an important transformation,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who also pointed to the “economic consequences”, either in terms of “Ukraine’s economic recovery”, or the allocation of “European funds” to the new countries.
In addition to the “political-diplomatic front” facing Ukraine, the head of state stressed that the military front “could be really decisive in the coming months”.
“It was very important for peace on the continent [europeu] and for world peace that we really had an epilogue as soon as possible and that was beneficial to the ideals of the United Nations Charter and international law,” he noted.
The Prime Minister confirmed today that Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, will attend the European Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday, where support for Ukraine and its accession to the European Union will be discussed.
Source: DN
