PM at NATO summit: ‘convinced Denmark’s integrity not at risk from Trump’

Jetting from Portugal’s unhappy defeat in the World Cup to Ankara, Turkey, the prime minister is attending the NATO summit – which has been widely billed as ‘one of the most significant yet’, for everything that it involves (most particularly, the alliance’s future position vis-a-vis the United States).

President Trump is already there, and has been firing off his habitual salvo of broadsides, returning once again to the issue of the United States needing control of Greenland.

But Portugal’s head of government seems to have taken the ructions all very much in his stride.

Talking to Lusa today, he stressed that he is “convinced” that Denmark’s territorial integrity remains secure (Denmark being the country that retains certain controls over Greenland, which was one of its colonies from 1721 to 1953, but is now a largely self-governing country in its own right).

Mr Montenegro has also dismissed the idea that the U.S. president harbours any ill will towards the Alliance, writes Lusa.

Referring to Mr Trump’s latest ‘threats’, the PM said that “regardless of the statements and the context in which they were made, (he believes) the territorial integrity of every NATO member state remains secure.”

When pressed as to whether Mr Trump harbours resentment towards NATO (the president’s words yesterday, mentioning Greenland and the wider conflict with Iran, were: “I am not happy with NATO”), Portugal’s PM said “I don’t think so (…) from what I have been able to gather from the proceedings so far, I don’t think there is any reason to say that.”

Today is the second and final day of the summit, which is focused primarily on boosting European defence spending (in the face of a U.S. pullback) and on support for Ukraine.

Member countries are due to sign a new declaration, reiterating their commitment to Article 5 (an attack on one is an attack on all) – and in this context, Mr Montenegro said he hopes very much that Portugal’s maritime interests will be safeguarded by other allies.

“Portugal is living up to its responsibility as a partner and, naturally, also hopes that, within the Alliance, our interests will be safeguarded, particularly with regard to maritime security, an area in which we have redoubled our efforts to defend our territory, as well as to defend the interests of the entire Atlantic Alliance,” he told reporters.

This “Atlantic centrality”, as he called it, is a “priority” for Portugal.

In the prime minister’s view, the summit will “continue the process of strengthening the European pillar within NATO and the investment commitments of all European countries, within which Portugal has also been fulfilling its responsibility”.

We just have to hope that this interpretation is the correct one – and that Mr Trump doesn’t produce further ‘surprises’.

Source material: LUSA

Natasha Donn

Journalist for the Portugal Resident.