“As there was an era before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Berlin Wall, now there will be an era before the Ukraine conflict and after the Ukraine conflict,” Henrique Gouveia e Melo told journalists aboard Ukraine. a Navy ship that participated in the marine operation to rehabilitate a tortoise at sea by the Porto d’Abrigo do Zoomarine.

The admiral considered that “there was a tendency towards an economy based on values ​​and they avoided liberalism to the old geostrategy” and that “they are not enough to prevent a conflict from happening again in a space as important as the European one for the global economy”.

Asked about Portugal’s role in this new geopolitical “era”, Henrique Gouveia e Melo replied that the country “is decisive in an aspect that is often passed on in a subliminal way, without people realizing it”, which is often logistics.

“Imagine what is happening in Russia and what is Russia’s greatest difficulty in the conflict. It’s a logistical difficulty. It is a great power and is facing a very strong logistical difficulty in the conflict. And it is this logistical difficulty, which we are thanking God for, for us, who, on the other side, assert ourselves.

For the Chief of Staff of the Navy, the countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), “which are around the North Atlantic Ocean”, also have “logistic problems” and use “a large highway , which is the North Atlantic Ocean, to avoid logistical problems in support of Europe itself”

“If we don’t take care of this highway, any action in Europe is conditionally conditioned. What is the role of Portugal, is that we are taking precisely that highway and we have a roundabout on the highway, which is called the Azores archipelago”, he added.

Therefore, Portugal has a “geostrategic importance” that “was one of the other countries of the Atlantic Alliance, which comes from its “maritime position”, which differentiates it from the other countries of the Atlantic Alliance.

On whether Portuguese military investment is sufficient for this task, Henrique Gouveia e Melo replied that these are “political matters” and “the competence of the power legitimately elected by the Portuguese people”.

“The policy defines objectives, time targets and resources, with the specific resources, with ourselves and the objectives that have been fulfilled, we try to plan and fulfill the political objectives”, he justified.

The Armada Chief of Staff considered, however, that the military has “always to defend the roundabout”.

“We can have more means or strong means, the roundabout is only defended by Portugal, but Portugal has a role in that defense and the means are not those that the country can provide to the size of the country and this effort also has to be made to the size of the country. country”, he stressed.

And concluded: “If we do it well [a defesa]we have more geostrategic freedom within this international and globalized world, if we do it badly we reduce our geostrategic freedom”.