The NATO Summit, which took place in Washington from July 9 to 11, was marked by the profusion of warmongering rhetoric, the affirmation of the offensive nature of this political-military bloc, the insistence on its strategy of confrontation and war, confirming that it is the greatest threat to peace and to the peoples of the world.
This Summit also marked the 75th. anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), created on April 4, 1949, in Washington, which, falsely claiming to defend freedom and democracy, had as one of its founding members the fascist dictatorship that suppressed Portugal, which it supported, including by supporting its colonial wars, until 25th April 1974.
Held in the context of the US elections and the questions they raise, as well as the European Union's subordination to US strategy, the convergence and consensus declared at the Summit between the 32 countries that make up NATO does not, however, annul the existence of contradictions and different interests.
The Summit insisted on prolonging and worsening the war in Ukraine, adopting decisions and pointing out intentions that will lead, if materialised, to even greater NATO involvement, with the serious consequences and dangers that this entails. In this context, the US announcement of the deployment of US long-range missiles in Germany after 2026 is extremely serious.
Likewise, and taking a step forward in its rhetoric against China, the Summit - which was once again attended by representatives from Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia - also adopted measures that seek to expand NATO's warmongering action to Asia-Pacific, targeting China in particular, but also the other countries in this region.
The Middle East and Africa, where NATO and its powers have already taken the war, are also reaffirmed as the objectives of its action.
NATO not only rejoiced at the significant increase in military spending by its members - who are already responsible for more than half of the world's military spending - and arms production - including the modernisation of nuclear weapons and the militarisation of space - but has also called for an even greater increase, promoting the arms industry, which accumulates fabulous profits.
Waving pretences of threats and trying to falsely attribute to others what it has in fact been its responsibility for many years - such as the militarisation of international relations, the arms escalation, the calling into question of collective security and disarmament agreements, the growth of warmongering alliances and partnerships, disinformation operations, interference, destabilisation or wars, like those in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan or Libya - NATO calls upon itself the imposion of the so-called "rules-based world order" dictated by the US, in opposition to the principles of the UN Charter and international law, in other words, in opposition to peace and the peoples of the world.
It is both significant and demonstrative of NATO's cynical stance and actions that its Summit declaration doesn't say a single word about the situation in Palestine and the criminal bombings, attacks and blockade imposed by Israel on the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, which amount to genocide, and for which it is ultimately complicit.
In reality, the escalation of confrontation and war promoted by NATO is inseparable from the attempt by the US and the major EU powers to respond to the crisis they are facing and to counteract their relative decline, by trying to contain and reverse the process of rearrangement of forces that is taking place at world level, and which objectively questions their hegemonic dominance.
The PCP reaffirms that the strategy of confrontation and war by the US, and its allies, is not just aimed at Russia and China, but at all countries and peoples who do not submit to the dictates of imperialism.
The PCP condemns the Portuguese government's alignment with NATO's escalation of confrontation and war, in a clear expression of submission to US interests, which is contrary to the interests and aspirations for peace of the Portuguese people and the peoples of the world.
The PCP reaffirms the urgency of an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and humanitarian aid for its population, an end to the violent repression and the establishment of new settlements in the West Bank, the materialisation of the Palestinian people's right to a sovereign and independent state, with the 1967 borders and capital in East Jerusalem, and the implementation of the refugees' right to return, as determined by UN resolutions.
Faced with the prolongation, impacts and risks of the war in Ukraine, the PCP reaffirms that the US, NATO and the EU must stop instigating and fuelling the conflict and that negotiation channels must be opened with the other players, in particular the Russian Federation, with the aim of reaching a political solution, responding to the problems of collective security and disarmament in Europe and complying with the principles of the UN Charter and the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference.
The PCP calls on democrats to mobilise for the fight for peace, against fascism and war, including for the peaceful resolution of international conflicts, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, general, simultaneous and controlled disarmament, the dissolution of political-military blocs - starting with NATO - and the establishment of a collective security system, with a view to creating an international order capable of ensuring peace and justice in relations between peoples, as set down in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic.
The peoples of the world aspire to peace, not to the path of militarism and war to which NATO wants to drag humanity.
