The missions in CAR, Afghanistan and Iraq "are long-term operations and so it is not expected that, for next year, there will be major changes," said António Silva Ribeiro, the chief of the general staff of the armed forces. The conflicts in these countries, he explained, "will take years to resolve and the international community needs to contribute to their resolution."

Silva Ribeiro was speaking to Lusa in an interview one year into his term.

"As a result of the action of our rapid reaction force a month ago, the main opposition group [in the CAR], the UPC, came to the negotiating table and a peace agreement was signed [on 6 February],” he stressed, adding that" it should not be forgotten" that it was the existence of the military force that made the political dialogue possible.

"The country is stable now and we want that to continue and that democratic institutions can exercise authority and that the government of the Central African Republic will be able to control the entire territory,” he said. “But this is going to take time and it will be necessary for our forces to stay on.”

As regards European security and defence, Silva Ribeiro argued that "it is essential for European countries to develop military capacities" in a coordinated manner but not in a way that "duplicates" what NATO is doing. Instead, he said, "everything that is done" in the context of the European Union developing its military capacities must be "useful” to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which "is truly the military alliance that defines the Euro-Atlantic defence, of which Europe is a part."

It will, he said, take some time for the EU to have a military response capacity anywhere near that of NATO. The latter has a key member, the US, with a potential in terms of research and development and capacity building that marks it out and is unmatched by any other country in the world.

Portugal has 215 military personnel currently engaged in NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, helping protect Kabul airport, working at the local headquarters, in support operations and in special operations.

In the CAR it has 193 personnel in the United Nations mission in the country, 179 of them making up an immediate reaction force based in Bangui, with a further 14 at the headquarters of the mission, whose second-in-command is a Portuguese general, Marco Serronha.

In the EU’s training and advisory mission in the same country, of which Portugal has the command until July, the country has 63 military personnel, according to official data.

In Iraq, as part of an international coalition to combat Daesh (Islamic State), dubbed Operation Inherent Resolve, 52 military personnel from Portugal are providing training and training to local forces.