Former Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva stressed on Monday that Portugal supports Ukraine “without hesitation”, and considered that the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Portugal and the subsequent signing of a bilateral agreement represent the “intensification of cooperation” between the two countries.

“I think the signing of this agreement is very important, as it means the intensification of bilateral cooperation between the two countries, in line with what has been done. I fully trust the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Portuguese diplomacy, which knows very well how to work on these matters, and that is what is expected”, said the former President of the Assembly of the Republic, in an interview with SIC Notícias.

Santos Silva pointed out that Zelensky should be received “at the highest level” on Tuesday, and stressed that he would not be surprised “if the President of the Republic went to the airport”, as the King of Spain did on Monday.

“There will be a bilateral meeting at the Belém Palace, it is very likely that there will also be a meeting with the Prime Minister, and these are the main moments. The duration of the visit does not allow for a trip to the Parliament and I think that a welcome session is not planned. In any case, the Assembly of the Republic has already received President Zelensky in a session via digital means, and therefore, this point has been fulfilled”, he considered.

The official also recalled his visit to Kyiv, as well as those of former Prime Minister António Costa and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and justified that “the bilateral contacts at the highest level between Portugal and Ukraine are very important and have been made at the possible pace”.

In this line, Santos Silva stressed that “the two states of the Iberian Peninsula have been impeccable in their political and diplomatic support and in cooperation at the most diverse levels with Ukraine”, noting that “Portugal was one of the first European countries to fulfil its commitments, namely in making Leopard tanks available”.

“For some time we were the only ones, together with Germany, that were fulfilling this commitment. Within our capabilities, we have always done so. We are a country that not only announces things, but also delivers”, he added.

When asked about the contact he had with Zelensky, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs noted the courage shown by the Head of State, who showed “enormous courage and enormous responsibility”.

“It is to be with a person who has shown enormous courage and enormous responsibility, in addition to a sense of State. In the days immediately following 24 February 2022, there were even proposals made by the Americans to welcome and protect President Zelensky, if he so understood, which he refused. So far, the Russian Federation has not yet achieved any of its objectives”, he said, referring, in this last point, to the occupation of Kyiv, the fall of the Ukrainian regime, the ‘denazification’ of Ukraine and the stagnation of NATO's expansion.

Although Russia has had “evident political, international and diplomatic defeats”, Santos Silva acknowledged that “the course of the war on the ground has not been favourable to Ukraine in recent months, but wars are not linear processes”. He therefore stressed that “Ukraine's objectives, which we support without hesitation, are very simple and legitimate”, since the country “is merely fighting for its independence, its sovereignty and its territorial integrity within the internationally recognised borders, even by Russia itself at the time”.

The former President of the Assembly of the Republic did not fail to highlight that “Zelensky holds Portugal and the Portuguese in high esteem”, not only “due to the strong presence of the Ukrainian community in Portugal since the 1990s”, but also “due to the speed of the Portuguese reaction when the Russian invasion occurred, in the unequivocal condemnation and in making all support available to Ukrainians who needed to take refuge among us”.

It should be recalled that the President of Ukraine will sign a bilateral security agreement with the Prime Minister of Belgium on Tuesday morning, in Brussels, before travelling to Lisbon, where he will sign an agreement with Portugal, which includes "humanitarian, financial, military, political" assistance regarding the process of integration into the European Union.

Zelensky's trip takes place at a time when Russia has intensified its offensive in eastern Ukraine and has opened a new combat front in the northeast, in the Kharkiv region, since the beginning of May, in addition to the intensive bombings against the country's vital infrastructure and which also hit civilian targets. The Ukrainian leader continues to insistently ask his Western allies for military support to counter Russia's superiority in terms of personnel, weapons and ammunition.

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