Mário João Fernandes considers NATO’s new targets a challenge
Mário João Fernandes describes the new defence investment targets as challenging, in an interview on Antena 1’s programme “TIK TAK”, in the context of the NATO summit held in The Hague over the past two days.
In light of global geopolitical instability and a new commitment among allies to spend more on defence — 5% of GDP — the Abreu Advogados consultant warned that if Portugal was unable to meet the previous target of 2% set at the 2014 summit, the new goal will be “a very complicated matter”.
He also commented on Donald Trump’s “latent threat” that “if there is an attack on a Member State that does not meet its spending target, the US will not guarantee its legitimate defence”. “Merely considering this possibility is enough to bring about the end of the alliance,” he warned.
In Mário João Fernandes’s words, what emerges from the summit is a sort of “renewal of marriage vows to keep the Americans in NATO. The commitment? Spend more money and invest in equipment, which is supplied by the US,” he emphasised.
Mário João Fernandes also highlighted Europe’s lack of human and financial resources for equipment, warning that “without NATO, there is no legitimate collective defence” and that no Member State would be capable of defending itself. “I’m a sober Europeanist, I believe in Europe, but I’m aware that things are not progressing at the desired pace,” he stated.
Listen to the interview here (available only in Portuguese).
