"The Armed Forces are, in war as in peace, the last frontier of our independence, a bond between the State and the nation, the country and its memory. That is why we, in the Government, want to honor the military of the present and the combatants of the past, prepare and safeguard those of the future", stated Nuno Melo.

The president of CDS-PP spoke at the closing of the party's 31st Congress, which ended today in Viseu with the election of the new bodies.

Nuno Melo highlighted being the "fifth Minister of Defense" of CDS-PP, succeeding "such important people as Paulo Portas, Freitas do Amaral, Luís Azevedo Coutinho and Adelino Amaro da Costa", and said he had "an exact notion of the dimension of the task".

The Minister of Defense listed the specification book for the legislature, saying that he will feel that the "mission [was] accomplished" if he manages to "stop the decline in recruitment for the Armed Forces", if he manages, "on a voluntary basis and with adequate incentives, to improve the operational state of the Armed Forces", improve "healthcare and life assistance for former combatants", "make Defense industries and industrial units efficient and profitable" and, also, "comply with the execution objectives in equipment and infrastructure".

If he fulfills these objectives, he will leave "the Armed Forces in a better situation than when he received them", he defended.

In a half-hour speech in which he raised the room several times, Nuno Melo indicated that, "with respect for budgetary possibilities", the Government will try to "respond to the needs of importance of investment in defense" and for the "dignification of the Armed Forces" and the "appreciation of former combatants".

The minister also committed to "updating incentives for recruitment and retention of the military" to "productive and technological training of the defense industry" and to "modernization and adaptation of the equipment and facilities where there is so much to do".

"Also walking, in what is an assumed commitment, to begin with, by the prime minister, decisively but in stages, taking into account the possibilities, for our international commitment to invest in the NATO framework", he pointed out.

At this point, Nuno Melo addressed "all the parties" with whom the CDS-PP shares "for many years a broad and patriotic consensus around defense policy, built and maintained by all constitutional governments since April 25, based on the European, Atlantic and Lusophone axes".

The leader of CDS-PP also commented on the approval of an aid package for Ukraine in the United States House of Representatives, which will allow a new boost to Kiev to face the Russian invasion, and considered that "fortunately, the Americans have returned to lucidity in an aid that is for a free world, for democracy and for freedom".

"Every cent, every ammunition, every air defense system delivered to Ukraine is not charity, it is investment and it is an obligation. In Ukraine, there are soldiers who die every day so that we do not have to fight in defense of our freedoms", he stressed, defending that "what is at stake in the East is not only a territorial dispute, it is also a confrontation between democracies and totalitarianism".

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