Defence minister insists NATO must remain Europe’s principal defensive front

At an exceptionally delicate point (both collectively and specifically for Portugal) in the military relationship with the United States, defence minister Nuno Melo has attempted to dial back on all the tensions, stressing that NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, frequently criticised by President Trump) must remain Europe’s principal defensive front.

By saying this, Melo sought once again to show his antipathy towards the idea of a European army, and lend support to a future very much involved with the United States.

“European defence is not equally effective with or without the U.S.A,” he pointed out, in an interview with Jornal de Notícias and TSF Rádio.

NATO “as an organisation of dissuasion and defence, has fulfilled its role very well” – and much of this is due to “this Atlanticist approach, bringing together both sides of the Atlantic, with the United States of America in the equation.”

“A European defence is not equally effective with or without the United States, “ he stressed – minimising the issues, often talked up, between European NATO members and the Trump administration (which has already threatened to abandon NATO on a number of occasions).

“I don’t confuse the administration of a country with that country and its people. Administrations are transitory,” Melo told his interviewers, on the sidelines of a meeting in Brussels of European defence ministers.

“Never before has continental Europe (…) had so much permanent peace as we have measured since the end of the Second World War, also because of NATO,” said the minister, side-stepping the four years-plus conflict ongoing in Ukraine.

Melo also returned to his recent comments against the creation of a European army, stressing that the important thing is to strengthen the European defence pillar in NATO, and invest in national armed forces.

“I tend to be against the idea of ​​a European army*, which does not invalidate the fact that within the European Union (EU) and in the European context, we should not articulate what are fundamental aspects of a common defence,” he said.

But the most ‘pertinent’ questions right now remain on how Portugal will be renewing its obsolete fleet of F-16 fighter jets. Pre- this latest U.S. administration, the understanding was that Portugal would be buying Lockheed Martin F-35s. Then, came the realisation that these aircraft could be ‘controlled remotely’ by the manufacturers (ergo, by the United States) in the event of a conflict that the United States did not necessarily agree with. For this reason, European manufactured replacement jets were starting to be considered, which has seen a major effort, on the part of the Americans, to reverse this.

*As for the latest ‘call for a European Army’, this came from Spain, which said it should happen “immediately” as a way to preserve Europe’s freedom in a context of growing tensions with the United States.

The idea was swiftly dismissed by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, who considered it illusory, instead calling for the strengthening of the armed forces of European countries.

Source material: LUSA