"On behalf of the Portuguese people, I reaffirm Portugal's total commitment as a member of NATO, as a founder of NATO, wherever and whenever necessary", said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at the Air Force Air Command, in Monsanto (Lisbon).

The head of state assured that Portugal maintains its commitments in helping the “courageous Ukrainian people”, but also “in the Baltic States, in Romania, in the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean Sea, in improving information, in cyber-attack prevention actions, in geostrategic analysis”.

“We were, are and will always be prepared to fulfil [NATO's commitments], without moods or excuses, to the limit of our capabilities”, reiterated Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

The President of the Republic underlined that it was precisely because of this commitment that Portugal was “one of the last – if not the last [country] – to leave Afghanistan”, also recalling that he himself was “the last head of state to be in Kabul, even before the start of the pandemic, at the end of 2019”.

“We stand ready and firm, with our soldiers, on the most difficult battlefields, on all continents, but above all in Europe”, he stressed.