Santos Silva conveyed Portugal’s support for Sweden’s accession to NATO
O President of the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, conveyed to his Swedish counterpart the “”support” of Portugal for Sweden and Finland for NATO.
Speaking during this Tuesday, via video call, Santos Silva, an official to NATO, said that the country’s accession finds a theme during this trip and explains that it is natural for these countries to want to join the Alliance, since the invasion of Ukraine “changed” the security situation in Europe.
“I think this accession process is necessary and will contribute to redesigning the security architecture in Europe, so what I conveyed to the president of the Swedish parliament is that the vast majority of parliamentarians support the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO and, therefore, it is not our concern, the process of ratification of the treaty will be relatively fast”, he revealed.
The Parliament sees the Parliament that this accession process accepts no ground in Ukraine and considers that despite Russia having “no reason to do so”.
“NATO is an alliance, NATO does not attack anyone, not always expansionist. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has changed a lot the security situation in Europe is that the countries, which were now necessary for Europe, are neutral, which were now in need of if to be neutral” adhesion to this great defensive alliance of the democracies of the North Atlantic”, defended.
“Russia would like to have a right of challenge over the sovereign decisions of countries with regard to their alliances, but the right of challenge does not exist”, he added, considering that the country’s position is “profoundly contradictory” with international law. .
“Countries sovereignly decide which alliances they want,” he noted.
Santos Silva also highlighted that the possibility of dialogue with Russia remains open, after indicating that Moscow’s concerns are accepted as “legitimate” by NATO.
“We are available to continue to speak with Russia about them. [preocupações] within the framework of the NATO council, that there are years that are available for the countries of Russia, which are not available for the countries of Russia. or not to make countries like Sweden or Finland or any others”, he defended.
Asked whether energy dependence is also a concern for Sweden, Santos Silva is not a “shared” concern.
Portugal and Russia have exactly the same attitude. more investment in energy sources, an area in which the two countries currently excel”, he added.
Read also: Santos Silva and parliamentarian visit Sweden