Nuno Melo, the Minister of Defense, attended the ‘Grande Conferência’ organized by Diário de Notícias, focusing on the challenges facing National Defense. The event took place on Tuesday at the Military Academy in Lisbon.
In his address, Melo advocated for increased investment in the defense sector, which currently receives 3.1 billion euros. He stated this amount is “below other areas.”
“If we are called upon to invest more— for reasons that are well understood— we should see this moment, which is a historic one, as an opportunity that Portugal surely cannot squander, and not as a problem […]. Portugal must rise to the height and significance of its time,” stated the CDS-PP leader.
Melo emphasized that the Armed Forces are “the last frontier of a Nation’s independence.” Therefore, investing in Defense should not be viewed as a “whim” or risk upsetting the budget.
“To those who spread demagoguery when solving issues and argue with a choice between Health or Housing, or Education and Defense, I would like to say that in a country that remains sovereign and views Defense as one of its primary expressions of sovereignty, nothing should be seen as an alternative; it must be viewed in terms of complementarity,” he asserted.
