NATO Deputy Secretary General visits Portugal
Visiting Portugal on Friday (1 March) the NATO Deputy Secretary General Ms. Rose Gottemoeller met with Minister of Foreign Affairs Augusto Santos Silva and with Minister of Defence João Gomes Cravinho to discuss defence investment and the challenges facing the Alliance.
Ms. Gottemoeller visited the NATO Communications and Information Academy (NCIA) and the NATO Naval Striking and Support Forces (STRIKFORNATO) headquarters in Oeiras. She also paid a visit to NATO’s Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre (JALLC) in Monsanto. In Lisbon Ms. Gottemoeller met with members of the Parliamentary Committee for National Defence.
Earlier on Thursday (28 February), Ms. Gottemoeller addressed the conference “The Future of NATO” at the Catholic University of Lisbon and said that as a founding member of NATO, Portugal has “always been at the heart of the transatlantic Alliance”, sitting “at the edge of the ocean that binds us together”. The Deputy Secretary General said that today Portugal continues to contribute to transatlantic security “on land, at sea, in air and in cyber space” with the new “cutting-edge cyber defence training academy” NCIA in Oeiras.
She said that in April Allied Foreign Ministers will meet in Washington on the same day and spot that the North Atlantic Treaty was signed 70 years ago and it will be a chance to reflect “on what we have achieved and where we are going”. The Deputy Secretary General stressed that Allies will continue to “strengthen NATO and our shared security” and that she is sure that “Portugal will continue to play an integral part today and in the future”.