Illinois “clear choice for this new partnership with Portugal”
Portuguese Armed Forces and the Illinois National Guard are to cooperate in a US state partnership programme aimed at improving mutual cybersecurity and disaster response capabilities and developing “space operational capabilities”.
According to a statement from the United States Embassy in Portugal, the US National Guard Bureau and the US Department of Defence have announced the creation of a State Partnership Programme (SPP).
Potential areas of cooperation between Portugal and the Illinois National Guard include improving “mutual cybersecurity capabilities to address national and regional threats and increase interagency coordination” and supporting “crisis response” and disaster preparedness.
The partnership includes the development of “space operational capabilities,” leveraging “complementary strengths in agriculture, infrastructure and academia,” and conducting “joint environmental research initiatives in soil management and water use.”
“The United States and Portugal, both founding members of NATO, have a strong existing security relationship and share an unwavering commitment to global security, rooted in decades of partnership and shared global deployments. Portugal’s strategic location and contributions to NATO missions have made the country a crucial element in safeguarding transatlantic security,” the statement adds.
The text quotes Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who considers “Illinois is the clear choice for this new partnership with Portugal”. This refers to the approximately 12,000 Portuguese-Americans living in Illionois, “including more than 13% of the people of Sammons Point in Kankakee County”.
Also quoted in the statement is the Portuguese Ministry of Defence, which says: “Our cooperation with the United States is long-standing, credible and strong. We are very honoured to establish this partnership between the Illinois National Guard and the Portuguese Armed Forces. We are committed to further deepening our long-standing relationship.”
A US account of this new programme, claims Portugal’s ties to America “predate the founding of the United States”.
Lt. Col. Bradford Leighton writing in the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service explains: “ There is also a unique history between Illinois and the Portuguese island of Madeira. Notably, the Founding Fathers toasted the signing of the Declaration of Independence with Madeira wine. Seventy years later, a number of Portuguese immigrants facing religious persecution left Madeira for Morgan County, becoming the first Portuguese immigrants to settle permanently in Illinois. Their descendants continue to enrich the cultural fabric of Illinois to this day, with the largest percentage of the population claiming Portuguese ancestry residing in Cook County”.
The same article explains that the U.S. National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program has been successfully building relations for more than 30 years, and now includes 110 partnerships with 119 nations around the globe.
Portugal and the United States are among the founding countries of NATO, which signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington on April 4, 1949. The other founding countries are Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway and the United Kingdom.
Sources: LUSA/ DVIDS
