The Portuguese Labor Party (PTP), in a statement signed by Quintino Costa, expressed its “deep concern” for the state to which military resources in the Autonomous Region of Madeira have arrived.
“The latest developments of NRP Mondego demonstrate the lack of care in ensuring the safety and surveillance of the Madeira subarea (442,248 km2),” said the president of PTP Madeira, understanding that to be “ready” is “to be properly prepared, equipped, with the appropriate crews at the ready, including prepared to correct expected failures and logically also properly prepared safety procedures to solve them in real time.”
In this sense, the party considers that the latest episodes of NRP Mondego demonstrate a “serious failure at the top of the command, where the proper measures were not taken for a proper maintenance of the ships, of an armada that must, first and foremost, honour the name of Portugal,” he maintained.
Maritime areas under national sovereignty and/or jurisdiction, as defined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), comprise maritime inland waters, the territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone, including the contiguous zone to the territorial sea and the continental shelf, “it is a duty of any government to guarantee to the armed forces, the means necessary to fulfill their duties.”
“Unfortunately, we have seen the deputies, in the Assembly of the Republic, elected by the silent autonomous regions, we have witnessed a passive and permissive Regional Government, a little reactive, and not concerned about the Autonomous Region of Madeira, security issues” he observed, questioning what the means of surveillance such as drones and radars should be on standby for military use, if conventional means are inadequate, damaged or unable to intervene as in the case of the NRP Mondego.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
