Porto, July 9, 2026 (Lusa) - Portugal's former defence minister and minister of foreign affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, has stated that it is “in the national interest to take part in an international mission in the Arctic”, emphasising that the country’s Atlantic vocation extends from the northern to the southern hemisphere.
“It is in the national interest to take part in an international mission in the Arctic, because we must never forget that we are, of course, a European country, but also an Atlantic country,” he said, following a debate as part of the Lusa Meetings, which took place at the Palacete Silva Monteiro, headquarters of the Vinho Verde Region Viticulture Commission (CVRVV), in Porto on Wednesday evening.
Following the debate, which featured Portugal’s ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Rui Moreira, and was moderated by Lusa’s news director, Luísa Meireles, Augusto Santos Silva said, referring specifically to the northern region of the globe, that “we must say no” to US President Donald Trump’s claims regarding Greenland.
“‘No’ firmly and ‘no’ clearly. Indeed, from a legal and moral point of view, it would be a flagrant violation of the North Atlantic Treaty, which expressly states that all allies are committed to ensuring the territorial integrity of each other,” he said.
The university professor also warned, after being asked whether NATO’s presence in the Arctic might be a way of trying to appease Trump, “that one of the greatest mistakes democracies made in the 1930s was trying to appease Hitler”.
“It is not a question of appeasement; it is a question of reacting firmly. If today, unfortunately, we have to react firmly, not only towards President Putin [Russia] or President Xi [China], or Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, but also towards the US President and the Israeli prime minister, then so be it,” he emphasised.
Portugal and 11 other NATO countries have reaffirmed their commitment to taking “greater responsibility” for “maritime security” in the North Atlantic, the Baltic Sea and the Arctic Ocean, promising to strengthen their capabilities over the next decade.
According to a statement published on the Norwegian Government’s website, this “joint commitment”, made during the NATO summit held in Ankara, includes Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
These countries have reaffirmed their commitment to assuming “greater maritime responsibility for deterrence and defence in the North Atlantic, the Baltic Sea and the Arctic Ocean”.
Augusto Santos Silva also dismissed as an “old wives’ tale” the idea that “without the protective umbrella of the United States, Europe is at the mercy of Russia, and that Russia, the very next minute, will make that umbrella disappear and invade a European Union country”.
For the academic, the idea of a trade-off between reducing investment in pensions and the welfare state and strengthening defence is “a ‘dangerous and impossible trade-off’”.
“We have to take a different path, and that path is both possible and viable. What is that path? It is to invest in security and defence, making the most of the benefits that such investment brings in economic, technological, civil protection and human security terms,” he said.
He therefore also advocated a “more gradual approach” to investment in defence.
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