US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable foreign policy is making waves in Portugal in two very different areas: national defence and wine.
Caretaker Defence Minister Nuno Melo has suggested Portugal look to Europe, instead of the United States, to replace its ageing fleet of fighter jets, Público reports. “The world has changed” and Portugal can not ignore the current geopolitical environment when choosing how to replace the F-16s, he told the newspaper and Renascença in an interview. Given the recent positions adopted by the US, Portugal needed to think about its best options, he said, highlighting the importance of allies’ “predictability”. “We have to believe that, in all circumstances, these allies will be by our side,” he said. Alternatives to the F-16, which is the Air Force’s preferred option, exist, Público reports. These include the Eurofighter Typhoon, which the UK flies dozens of, the French Rafale, and the European Union’s Future Combat Air System, which is due to produce its first plane in 2027.
Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo, who is widely tipped to run for president, has stressed the importance of Europe beefing up its military to combat Russia, while flagging a possible downside for Portugal, Expresso reports. He said the four horsemen of the apocalypse could already be heard galloping but Europe’s capacity was “gigantic”, with 10 times the GDP and more than three times the population of Russia but had lacked the will to act. NATO could disappear, he predicted, warning that without the Azores as a key stopover between the US and Europe, Portugal could be relegated to only a peripheral maritime force in Europe’s military power.
Trump’s threat to put 200% tariffs on wines imported from the EU, meanwhile, could be a “disaster” for the industry, Expresso reports. Viniportugal president Frederico Falcão told the newspaper that the US was the country’s second biggest market, right behind France. “It’s a really concerning scenario because it compromises a market where we were investing a lot and having very good results,” he said. He called on the sector to pressure the EU to drop its 50% tariffs on American whiskey, which triggered the 200% threat but were themselves a reaction to Trump's tariffs on all steel and aluminium tariffs. Confused? The BBC has a good explainer of the broader trade war, in English.
Written by Jorge Branco - Portugal Weekly - Photo courtesy of Depositphotos.com
