US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Washington is “eager to deepen and strengthen” its relationship with Portugal, speaking on his first visit to Lisbon, which he hopes will not be his last.
“I understood almost everything he said, because it’s very close to Spanish,” Rubio quipped at a press conference alongside Minister of State and Foreign Affairs Paulo Rangel, following talks at the Palácio das Necessidades.
“Portugal and the US are allies, historic allies, united by a long-standing relationship,” said Rangel, who described the US as a “strategic partner”.
Rubio singled out defence ties between the two NATO members and welcomed Portugal’s commitment to spend more. “For NATO to be relevant, it needs to be strong. For NATO to be strong, its member states need to be strong. For NATO member states to be strong, they need to have capabilities,” he said.
But he stressed that he did not want the relationship to revolve around defence alone, arguing that Portugal also has an important economic role to play. Pointing to subsea cables and data centres, Rubio called the country an “ideal entry point, geographically and economically, for American tech companies into Europe”.
“I look forward to centuries more of collaboration between the US and Portugal as we build a safer, stronger transatlantic alliance and promote a more prosperous future for our peoples,” he added.
Rubio also remarked on the “impressive” number of American tourists visiting Portugal, and praised the country’s efforts against drug trafficking, noting the seizure of 200 tonnes of cocaine in recent years.
Asked about a possible purchase of F-35 fighter jets, Rangel said no decision had been taken and that “the Portuguese state will always decide in accordance with the national interest”.
Rubio agreed that the choice rests with the Portuguese government. “We think they should buy the F-35, because we think it’s the best in the world,” he said. “They will decide the process by which they make the choice, and we just want the opportunity to make the case for why we think ours is better.”
Before leaving Greece, the second stop on a European tour of NATO allies that began in Iceland, Rubio had already been generous in his praise of Portugal. Unlike neighbouring Spain, the Portuguese government allowed the US to use the Lajes air base in the Azores, located in a prime position in the middle of the Atlantic, for stopovers involved in its recent operations against Iran.
“The aim of our visit is not to create a problem with another country,” Rubio told reporters, rejecting any suggestion that he was comparing Portugal’s stance with Spain’s.
“Portugal is a great ally, a highly cooperative ally of the US, and a country with which we already have a solid and growing relationship. We visit these countries to strengthen those ties. That is the purpose of the trip,” he added, in remarks released by the State Department.
Lisbon’s permission to use Lajes was “conditional”: the government stipulated that any action must be a response to an attack, respect the principles of necessity and proportionality, and not target civilians.
The decision has nonetheless drawn fire. The Left Bloc (BE) denounced a “gross violation of international and Portuguese law”, and last week the Public Prosecutor’s Office announced it had opened an investigation.
Rubio declined to comment on the inquiry. Asked about criticism from Amnesty International over the use of the base, he was blunt: “It’s a fraud. They should be worrying about the thousands of people who were killed in cold blood in the protests in Iran.”
On Lajes more broadly, Rubio said the US had followed “the protocols” and again called Portugal “a great ally”.
“We have protocols that define our presence, and we always respect them,” he said. “Portugal has been a great ally and always has been,” adding that “not every country” had taken the same position.
The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) issued a statement upon Rubio’s arrival, declaring: “In defence of peace, sovereignty and rights, Marco Rubio is not welcome in Portugal!”
It claimed the visit “exposes the shameful alignment and subordination of the PSD/CDS government to the US” and “can only mean an even greater commitment and involvement by the Portuguese government in the aims of domination and the warmongering strategy of American imperialism”.
The party went on to describe Rubio as “one of those chiefly responsible for the criminal policy of confrontation, aggression and war promoted by American imperialism, which attacks the sovereignty and rights of peoples and openly disregards the principles of the UN Charter and international law”.
Source: LUSA
Photo credit: José Sena Goulão
