Statement by João Ferreira, Member of the Central Committee, Press conference

On the NATO warmongering Summit and the need for the struggle for peace

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The NATO Summit, in view of the goals that are on the table, represents yet another step in a growing threat to peace in the world.

Among other grievous aspects, NATO boosts its warmongering capacity; significantly increases military expenditures and the arms race; promotes the militarization of the European Union; reinforces the presence of its troops, including those of the United States of America, in Eastern Europe, directed at the borders of the Russian Federation; persists in its unceasing expansion - particularly in the Balkans, almost 20 years after its war of aggression against Yugoslavia.

Despite the revealed disagreements, NATO - whose 29 member countries, as a whole, already spend more on military expenditures than the sum of the remaining 164 countries of the world - has decided to increase its arms and intervention policy by another 266 thousand million dollars.

The falsehood of the alleged lack of financial means to ensure essential rights and to meet the pressing problems affecting workers and peoples is laid bare when NATO officials are increasingly earmarking thousands of millions, more than for the defence of each country, for militarism and war.

The European Union is reaffirmed as NATO's "European pillar" and its accelerated militarization pointed as complementing this aggressive political-military bloc. A military and security drift that includes, among other serious aspects, the so-called military “Permanent Structured Cooperation”, for which many thousands of millions of euros are channelled - at the cost and at the expense of the proclaimed “economic and social cohesion” - an example of which is the proposed 22-fold increase in the so-called “European Defence Fund”.
The decisions of the NATO Summit reveal that the great imperialist powers of NATO - despite their growing contradictions in the context of the deepening of the structural crisis of capitalism - persist in their offensive, trying to counter the tendency of their relative decline, given the process of realignment of forces that is taking place around the world.

NATO thus reaffirms itself as an instrument of interference, of destabilization, of aggression of this offensive which - led internationally by US imperialism and accompanied by the subordination of its allies to its strategy and interests - is directed against all peoples and countries that defend and affirm their rights, sovereignty, development and independence.
NATO and its great powers are the main threat to peace and to the peoples of the world. It should be recalled that NATO, using the most varied pretexts and campaigns of falsification, was responsible for wars of aggression against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan or Libya, and was also conniving with the aggression against Iraq or Syria - wars of aggression that caused death, suffering and destruction of countries, as well as millions of displaced persons and refugees. NATO supports the fascistic regime of Ukraine and its policy of oppression and aggression.

Contrary to what the Government and the President of the Republic have been advocating, there is a need for clear opposition to the policy of submission to the great powers of NATO and the European Union - in particular Portugal's participation in foreign military missions at the service of NATO and of its imperialist powers - which does not serve the interests of the Portuguese people and calls into question core elements of national sovereignty and independence.

When so many difficulties are raised to meet the needs of social functions and public services, namely in healthcare, education, transport, culture, social protection, upgrading of retirements and pensions, investment for development economic and social development of the country and to minimize its vulnerabilities, the Government's commitment to meet the objective of US/NATO of approaching 2% of GDP in military spending has no reasonable justification. This is all the more so when such an increase in military expenditure is not intended to address the problems of the military or the needs of the Armed Forces to respond to the constitutionally established missions.

Portugal should not be associated with the warmongering policies of NATO, the European Union and its great powers - an example of the so-called "European Intervention Initiative" promoted by France. Portugal should not be associated with militarism, the arms race, interventionism, war - a policy of militarization of international relations that defies the principles of the United Nations Charter and international legality.

Portugal must strive in its foreign policy for a détente in international relations, peaceful resolution of conflicts and rejection of threat and use of force in relations between States, for respect for national sovereignty and independence, for peace, universal disarmament, simultaneous and controlled, for cooperation and friendship between the peoples - according to what is advocated in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic.
In view of the serious threat posed by the imperialist offensive to the peoples of the world and welcoming the peace movement in Portugal and its action on the campaign "Yes to Peace! No to NATO!”, the PCP calls on all peace-loving people and democrats to intensify the struggle for peace and disarmament - including nuclear disarmament - against militarism and war, for the dissolution of NATO, as well as solidarity with the peoples who carry out a courageous struggle in defence of their rights and sovereignty.

  • Soberania, Política Externa e Defesa
  • Central
  • Nato
  • Paz