PM: Portugal can deploy its forces in Ukraine, participate in peacekeeping missions, but today it's not yet foreseen
Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro has said that Portugal will be able to participate in a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, but only after the war ends and such a mandate is not yet foreseen.
Montenegro said both the EU and Portugal shared the view that they did not wish to be present in Ukraine during the war, but that Portugal was part of the Coalition of the Willing and would continue to take part in peacekeeping operations. He noted that, within a peacekeeping framework and under security guarantees, NATO could deploy forces in Ukraine together with Portuguese troops and, for example, alongside Latvia and Lithuania to support peacekeeping efforts and provide security.
He said Portugal would always be ready to support and join peacekeeping and security missions, even though such participation was not currently envisaged. Once the issue was formally considered, he said, Portugal would be able to take part.
He added that Portugal was already contributing to the development of underwater drones and could, in the future, also participate in land operations aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s security, which he described as a national responsibility.
Zelenskyy, in turn, expressed gratitude to the head of the Portuguese government for the decision to participate in the Coalition of the Willing. "But this will work only after the ceasefire comes, or when this war ends. So not now," he said.
"And, of course, now I cannot share all the details of the Coalition of the Willing, but we know what we can count on. Under the leadership of Britain and France, in the Coalition of the Willing, we will have brigades, we will have countries that support security, at sea, some of them will be in the sky with planes, etc. But I think it is a little early to say that," Zelenskyy added.
