Lisbon, 17 May 2024 (Lusa) – Researcher Fernando Jorge Cardoso argued today in Lisbon that Russia, in its recent defence agreements with Portuguese-speaking countries, wants to demonstrate ‘that it can sail and dock in the Atlantic’, NATO’s ‘main sea’.
Fernando Jorge Cardoso, a visiting professor at the Autonomous University of Lisbon, believes that Russia is making it clear to the other powers that it is also capable of having influence in the region.
‘It’s a relatively successful attempt by Russia to say: “We are also capable of having influence in this region”,’ he said.
São Tomé recently signed a military agreement with Russia and the President of Guinea-Bissau said on Monday that there is a General Framework Agreement with that country, which remains ‘always intact’ and is revised from time to time, only through verbal processes, in all areas.
The researcher was speaking at the videoconference ‘Security in Africa – Perfect Storm’, organised by the Autonomous University of Lisbon, the Global Strategic Platform and the Centre for Analysis and Strategy, which also featured Luís Bernardino, a professor at the Autonomous University of Lisbon and a researcher at the Centre for International Studies at the University Institute of Lisbon (CEI-IUL).
Luis Bernardino assessed the role of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) in resolving the problems of maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, and considered that the Lusophone organisation ‘is not able to be an actor’ in this process.
‘The Gulf of Guinea has become the centre of gravity in terms of movement and maritime traffic between continents (…) mainly because there are certain supplies that come from that area (…), a geopolitical centre of gravity in these global routes in the economic area, particularly in the hydrocarbon area,’ he pointed out.
Luis Bernardino believes that ‘the CPLP has not contributed much, if anything, to this reality’.
‘We all hope that the CPLP can do much more. It can grow in terms of cooperation and defence, it can have more maritime presences in this region and it can play a role in this region, which it doesn’t have at the moment,’ he said.
Lusa/Fim
