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President with CPLP Armed Forces

President of the Republic views the start of the 2008 Feline Exercise in São Jacinto

The President of the Republic visited the preparation of military forces from the three branches, representing the Member States of the Community of the Portuguese Speaking People (CPLP), for the 2008 Feline Exercise.

In the facilities of the 10th Infantry Regiment, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces viewed the joint and combined training activities of the military personnel that constitute the Command of the Exercise, the General Staff of the CPLP Task Force and the respective Task Force.

President Aníbal Cavaco Silva was accompanied in the visit by the Minister for National Defence, the Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, the Chief of the Armed Forces General Staff, the President of the Parliamentary Defence Committee, the CPLP Executive Secretary, the Ambassadors of the CPLP Member States, the Chiefs of Staff of the three branches of the Armed Forces, the Civil Governor of Aveiro and the Mayor of Aveiro, amongst other individualities.

During the visit, the President of the Republic enhanced the importance of the Feline Series Exercises, and especially the 2008 Feline, for the creation of a defence component military capability of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, through the training of a Task Force which allows the interoperability of their respective Armed Forces and of a force of this type which will be eventually set up to take part in peace and humanitarian operations under the aegis of the United Nations Organization.

He also underlined the relevance of interoperability as an essential component for the forces to act jointly, and how language, one of the main features of the Community, is in this particular a facilitating and essential instrument for the success of CPLP and for its defence component.

The President also reiterated the encouragement for the joint action of the Armed Forces and of their capability to take part and be integrated in international forces deployed for peace and humanitarian operations, which he considers a fundamental tool of the external component of the policy of national defence, and a recognized value in the global effort for the increase of stability, peace and the mitigation of international imbalances.