Portugal’s defence minister, José Azeredo Lopes, today tried to play down the presence of ships from Russia’s Northern and Baltic fleets off the Portuguese coast even though the assembly includes a nuclear submarine and an aircraft carrier destined to participate in air operations in Syria.
"I have, and no else to my knowledge has, any evidence to conclude that this is a particularly serious situation. It can be treated as a form of naval demonstration like we have seen in the past," said the minister as the Russian ships sailed through Portugal’s exclusive economic zone 200 nautical miles off the Portuguese coast.