Lisbon, July 8, 2024 (Lusa) - Portugal will be represented at the NATO summit, which takes place between Tuesday and Thursday in Washington, by the prime minister, Luís Montenegro, the foreign minister, Paulo Rangel, and the defence minister, Nuno Melo.
On Wednesday, the prime minister will attend the dinner hosted by Joe Biden, the president of the United States of America, for the heads of state and government attending the NATO summit, which will be held at the White House.
The summit, which will take place between Tuesday and Thursday, will be held in the US capital and will mark the 75th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). It will be held in the same city where twelve countries—including Portugal—signed this treaty to ensure their collective defence in 1949.
According to the provisional programme for the prime minister's trip to the United States, PM Montenegro will arrive in Washington in the early afternoon on Tuesday (15:20 local time, 20:20 Lisbon time) and will immediately take part in the ceremony commemorating NATO's 75th anniversary, which will feature speeches by the organisation's secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, and President Joe Biden.
On Tuesday, the head of government is also scheduled to have dinner at Portugal's official residence in Washington.
On Wednesday, Montenegro, accompanied by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Defence, will attend the official greetings ceremony by NATO's Secretary General and the President of the United States to the heads of state and government present in Washington and the meeting of the North Atlantic Council, the allies' main political decision-making body.
Montenegro will then go, accompanied by his wife, to the dinner at the White House for the heads of state and government and, according to the programme released by NATO, there will be separate dinners for the foreign ministers in Washington - hosted by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken - at the US Library of Congress, and for the defence ministers at Fort McNair, one of the oldest US Army bases.
On the last day of the NATO summit, Montenegro, Rangel and Nuno Melo will take part in another meeting of the North Atlantic Council, this time with partners from the Indo-Pacific and the European Union, followed by a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC).
In 2024, there are now 32 NATO member states - the most recent being Finland and Sweden, which joined during Russia's war against Ukraine - and they should be represented at the highest level in Washington.
The summit marking NATO's 75th anniversary will also be the last for the current Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, who will be succeeded by former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Under the leadership of Norwegian Stoltenberg, which began on 1 October 2014, NATO gained four new members when it joined Montenegro (2017), North Macedonia (2020), Finland (2023) and Sweden (2024).
NATO's secretary-general outlined three central topics for the Washington summit: boosting member state defence and allied deterrence; supporting Ukraine's efforts to defend itself, which he called "the most urgent task" of the Atlantic Alliance; and continuing to strengthen NATO's global partnerships "especially in the Indo-Pacific", having invited the leaders of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea to the meeting.
The support package for Ukraine - which is expected to set annual aid from the allies at 40 billion euros a year - will also involve NATO taking on the task of coordinating the military aid it receives to defend itself against Russian invasion, as well as the training initiatives for its forces, through a command led by a three-star general and with around 700 people working at a NATO headquarters in Germany.
Portugal is one of the 12 countries in Europe and North America that founded NATO in 1949.
SMA/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
