Hours after condemning North Korea for its missile launch over Japan, Portugal’s President Marcelo was in Lithuania where counterpart Dalia Grybauskaité warned that Russian military build-up in nearby Kaliningrad is “very fast and aggressive” involving missiles being sited that “could reach Lisbon”.
It was a sombre moment in a flying visit by Portugal’s Head of State to cheer 140 Portuguese servicemen and women stationed in Lithuania on a NATO mission.
Grybauskaité was addressing journalists after a meeting earlier today with President Marcelo.
She also warned that Russia was “using Lithuania” as a guinea pig for cyber attacks that it plans to “use in other countries”.
Nothing has been reported of President Marcelo’s reaction to the claims, though national media has made much of his condemnation of “the attitude of the regime of Kim Jong-Un”.
Marcelo said that the launch which went ahead early this morning Korean time (11pm Monday, Portuguese time) “constituted yet another flagrant violation of obligations defined in diverse resolutions of the UN Security Council and clearly compromises regional and international security”.
Indeed, the incident has prompted an emergency meeting of the UN security council in New York following a telephone conversation between Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and US president Donald Trump.
Say reports, the pair have agreed to “increase pressures on North Korea”.
