The use of the Lajes Base to refuel North American planes en route to the Middle East, to support operations against Iran, once again placed Portugal at the center of a sensitive controversy. Experts dispute the chancellor’s version and argue that the United States would need explicit authorization to use the base as part of a military offensive. The minister argued that no aircraft that passed through Lajes were used in the attack, but they would have been used in resupply roles, meaning that Portugal would have facilitated North American and Israeli intervention. And this has political consequences.
The problem is that this is not a question with a simple answer. In theory, Portugal could refuse to use the base, as provided for in the treaty signed in the 1950s. But, in practice, a refusal would call into question an alliance that, for decades, has contributed to our security and the preservation of our territorial integrity. This is where foreign policy stops being an academic exercise and becomes a confrontation with reality.
The transfer of the base in Terceira was born in the context of the Cold War, at a time when the United States sought to present itself as a democratic and post-colonial power, distinct from the old European empires and guided by values that supported its ambition to lead the “free world”. The agreement was signed between sovereign states who, on paper, treated each other as equals. But Salazar knew that refusing North American intentions could put the survival of the Estado Novo and even the territorial integrity of the country at risk. The memory of the Second World War was all too present: in 1943, the Anglo-Saxon powers made it clear that they could occupy the Azores if necessary, as they did in Greenland and Iceland, if Portugal did not allow their use. Furthermore, since the Restoration, Portugal has always sought to maintain an alliance with the dominant maritime power, to guarantee its independence and preserve the colonial empire.
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