José Manuel Bolieiro, president of the Regional Government of the Azores, defended this Friday, April 3, a review of the Bilateral Defense and Cooperation Agreement with the USA that compensates the region in an “act of justice” given the “renewal” of its geostrategic value.
Bolieiro admits that “perhaps, at this stage, for Portugal as an ally, it is difficult given the current American situation, its administration and the context of international positioning in which the USA has positioned itself at an international level in matters of security and defense”.
For the leader of the Azorean government, perhaps “it is not exactly the most opportune moment to talk about renegotiations of international agreements”, but “as soon as this opportunity arises, it is fair, appropriate, given the resurgence in the geopolitical and geostrategic value of the Azores”.
The position of the president of the Government of the Azores follows his interview given Thursday to radio Renascença and the newspaper Público, where he defended the review of the Lajes Agreement.
The leader of the Azorean executive safeguards this “recrudescence of geostrategic value” in the context of “not only NATO, but also the transatlantic relationship and global international security and defense”, so that “this Agreement can be revisited”.
“Under the terms of the Constitution, it is stipulated with undoubted clarity that in international negotiations that concern the Azores the region must participate”, and “the resulting benefits must also benefit the Azores”, he recalls.
Bolieiro states that the Azores have become “increasingly relevant as a geopolitical and geostrategic territory” for the country, the European Union and NATO, which implies the “opportunity to strengthen alliance ties with the USA”, a country that should “also consider the contribution to the Autonomous Region of the Azores”.
The leader of the Azorean executive, within the framework of reinforcing investment in security and defense, argues that “a significant part of these infrastructures must be built in the Azores”, having the “essential quality of dual use”, also aiming to “contribute to the social and territorial cohesion of the region”.
The so-called Lajes Agreement was last revised in 1995, and at the time the financial compensation, in the order of 40 million dollars, that the Azores received for the use of military infrastructure by the USA fell.
In 2015, the Americans promoted a process of reducing the US military and civilian presence at the Lajes Base, following geopolitical changes.
There was a significant decrease in both US military personnel and Portuguese civilian workers serving at the base.
The departure of hundreds of military families affected local commerce, the rental market and the economy of Praia da Vitória, where the Lajes Base is located.
With the recent North American intervention in the Middle East, the Lajes Base is once again relaunched in geostrategic terms.
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