NATO Secretary General praises Portugal's resolve to put Lisbon reform agenda into practice

September 8, 2011 defpro.com

The NATO Secretary General, Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, visited Lisbon on 9 September 2011 and met with President Anibal Cavaco Silva, with Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, with Minister of Foreign Affairs Paulo Portas and with Minister of Defence José Pedro Aguiar Branco.

During the visit, the Secretary General discussed how to take forward the important strategic decisions taken at the Lisbon Summit last year.

“Our task now is to make sure we put them into practice. That will be the objective of our summit in Chicago next May”, the Secretary General said.

The Secretary General thanked Portugal for the constructive approach to the broad reform agenda decided at the Lisbon Summit and for Portugal’s contributions to the Alliance’s operations and missions.

“We are grateful for Portugal’s support to the decision to launch our operation to protect the people of Libya and we are also grateful for Portugal’s contributions to our operations in Afghanistan and in Kosovo”, the Secretary General said. “You have been a member of this Alliance since the start and you continue to help shape its destiny. Our very successful summit in Lisbon last year put the Alliance on a new course.”

The Secretary General noted that Portugal is leading the way to turn the decisions taken in Lisbon into practice and said that Portugal’s strong support for the reform of the Alliance’s command structure, to make it more modern and flexible is crucial.

“The decision to site NATO’s rapid reaction naval command in Lisbon shows the importance of having modern, deployable capabilities – and the importance of Portugal”, the Secretary General said.

During the visit, the Secretary General also met with the President of the National Parliament, Ms. Assunção Esteves and other parliamentarians.