With troop activity increasing along Russia’s western frontier and instability along the border with Ukraine, allied forces are beefing up lines of defence, explain reports in the Portuguese press. To this end, the country’s military has sent 108 young men and women to take part in NATO operations in Lithuania. The soldiers who left last week belong to the artillery regiment’s rapid response brigade.
Mission “Assurance Measures” will essentially comprise training. The brigade’s commander Aires Almeida Carqueijo told reporters: “All missions inevitably have a high level of demands.” And this latest one will set out to show that “the forces of the alliance work together and are a credible force”.
Seeing the young soldiers off from Lisbon’s Figo Maduro military airport, defence minister Azeredo Lopes said the government “firmly believes that in these complicated and difficult times on the eastern flank of NATO (i.e. the Russian border) we are giving a very clear sign of credit and capacity with the departure of this artillery regiment”.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
