Portuguese Foreign Affairs Minister João Gomes Cravinho reiterated his country’s willingness to provide training in using F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine’s air force, expressing the hope that these aircraft will be available at their maximum potential throughout 2024 while in Kyiv on Tuesday.
Speaking at a press conference following a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, the minister reiterated that Portugal “is available and is making its contribution to F-16 training” – noting that this is not “just another piece of military equipment” but “a complex weapons system involving various modalities.”
According to Gomes Cravinho, Portugal remains ready “to train pilots and maintenance technicians, back-up support in terms of maintenance, technical advice on aerodrome maintenance” and all the elements Portugal experiences as a user of the US fighter jets.
“I hope that [the F-16s] will be made available quickly and used to their full potential throughout 2024,” he said.
Several allied countries, including the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Belgium and the US, have pledged several dozen F-16s to Ukraine as part of an international coalition that includes Portugal.
Training of Ukrainian pilots and other personnel on the fighters has taken place in recent months, but the first deliveries of the aircraft have not yet been scheduled, with indications that they will take place in the first half of this year.
At Tuesday’s press conference, Gomes Cravinho was also asked to comment on the possible implications of recent reports of internal divisions within the Ukrainian government. He replied that he considered these normal in a democracy, noting that they did not contribute to the essential objective of helping Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.
“We are very used to working with democratic countries,” he said. “When it’s an autocracy or a dictatorship, there’s only one voice that counts, the voice of who’s in charge, and that’s the case in Russia, for example, which will soon have artificial elections.”
In the case of Ukraine, Gomes Cravinho expressed his conviction that “the courage and determination shown over two years will continue” and added that he receives this same “constant message” from his interlocutors in Ukraine.
“Questions of domestic arrangements, who takes certain positions at a given time are normal issues in every democracy,” he said, in comments made alongside his Ukrainian counterpart. “The fundamental thing is determination concerning strategic objectives, and I don’t see any change in that.”
Gomes Cravinho was commenting on reports of the possible dismissal of the commander of the armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, due to disagreements with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said on Monday that a government reshuffle was possible
(Henrique Botequilha – edited by Pedro Sousa Carvalho | Lusa.pt)
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