Portugal and Slovakia signed a military-technical cooperation agreement yesterday, with Slovakia’s deputy prime minister and defence minister expressing interest in Portuguese drones and KC-390 aircraft.
The ceremony took place at the São Julião da Barra Fort in Oeiras, where Defence Minister Nuno Melo and Slovakia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák signed the document.
“In the European Union (EU), we are well aware of the need to strengthen the European pillar of NATO’s defence. This must happen, firstly, in our countries and through agreements between European countries that can lead to greater and better development of defence industries,” said Melo.
Standing beside the defence minister, Kaliňák said he was “very happy” and, when asked about which Portuguese military capabilities were of interest to his country, he mentioned drone production.
He said he visited Beyond Vision on Tuesday and would visit the Tekever facilities today – two leading Portuguese companies in the production of these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
“Portugal developed this technology even before the start of the war in Ukraine. We are very interested in this type of cooperation”, he said.
Slovakia’s deputy prime minister also visited OGMA– Indústria Aeronáutica de Portugal, an aeronautical sector company that maintains aircraft engines for the Slovak armed forces.
Slovakia recently acquired F-16 Block 70/72 aircraft and Kaliňák anticipates greater cooperation between OGMA and the Slovak company also dedicated to maintenance in this area.
Finally, he said he is negotiating the purchase of the KC-390 multipurpose military transport aircraft with Brazil’s Embraer.
Portugal acquires these aircraft from Embraer, which are then equipped with national technology to adapt them to NATO and EU standards, with the Portuguese state earning around €10 million in profit per sale.
During this trip to Portugal, Slovakia’s deputy prime minister will also visit Air Base No. 11 (BA11) in Beja, home to the 506 Squadron – “Rinocerontes” (Rhinos) – where national and foreign pilots are trained to operate the KC-390.
Kaliňák also noted that at the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, Portugal sent troops to a multinational NATO brigade in the Lešť military training area in Slovakia, thanking them for this contribution.
By coincidence, this thanks came just as a force of 120 military is due to leave Portugal for an eight month NATO mission to Lithuania (Klaipeda) where the objective is to “dissuade threats and reinforce collective security along NATO’s eastern flank”.
The mission comes just as it is being reported that drones fired from Russian airspace hit locations in Estonia and Latvia in the early hours of this morning – both countries being NATO members since 2004.
Source material: LUSA/ France24.com
