By Len Port

It is perhaps no coincidence that President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has emphasized in Lisbon the importance of Portugal’s participation in the European Union.

The EU is an essential part of NATO, even more so at a time of Russian expansionist threats, and just weeks before Donald Trump takes over the White House. With shared values and sharing most of the same member states, the EU and NATO are facing strategic challenges like never before.

Noting that Portugal’s former Prime Minister António Costa currently heads the EU Council in Brussels and that Mark Rutte of the Netherlands is the NATO chief, Portugal’s President stressed that Portugal and the Netherlands share their commitment to multilateralism.

Portugal’s Finance Minister, Joaquim Mirandinha Sarmento, also said that the European Union needs common instruments to fund defense spending amid the protracted war in Ukraine and called from Washington for NATO members to increase such expenditure.

“All together, we must find solutions, just as we did in the financial crisis, the sovereign debt crisis, the pandemic, with inflation,” said the minister.

In the words of a NATO statement last week, NATO and the EU “work side by side in crisis management, addressing hybrid threats and challenges posed by growing strategic competition, as well as in building the capacities of their common partners in the east and south.

Relations between the two organizations were institutionalized in the early 2000s, building on steps taken in the 1990s to promote greater European responsibility in defense matters. NATO, of which Portugal is a founding member, plays a complementary, coherent, and mutually reinforcing role with the EU in supporting international peace and security.

The NATO statement went on to say that the development of European defense capabilities is a key element of joint efforts to make the Euro-Atlantic area safer, and it contributes to transatlantic burden-sharing. In developing these capabilities, NATO allies must ensure coherence and complementarity and avoid unnecessary duplication.

Close cooperation between NATO and the EU is key to developing an international, comprehensive approach and operations requiring crisis management and operations, involving the use of both military and civilian means.

NATO and the EU stand united in condemning Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and in supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and right to self-defense.

The 2022 Strategic Concept – the Alliance’s core policy document, which sets NATO’s strategic direction for the coming years – describes the European Union as a unique and essential partner for NATO and calls for an enhanced strategic partnership.

In January 2023, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, and the Presidents of the European Council, Charles Mitchel, and European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, respectively, signed the third Joint Declaration on EU-NATO Cooperation to further strengthen and expand the partnership. This declaration builds the unprecedented progress in cooperation since previous declarations were signed in 2016 and 2018.

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Len Port, born in Northern Ireland, worked as a news reporter and correspondent, mainly in Hong Kong and South Africa, before moving to Portugal many years ago.