Portuguese ship Zaire has worldwide fame in combating piracy

The defense minister said on Saturday night that the Portuguese ship Zaire, which operates in the waters of São Tomé and Príncipe, is already world famous for fighting piracy, being praised by countries like China.

João Gomes Cravinho took this position in a speech he gave at the end of a dinner in São Tomé, before the 26 Portuguese and 18 São Toméans of the patrol ship’s garrison, in addition to three members integrated in the Defense cooperation program.

“The Zaire ship has been in São Tomé and Príncipe for three years and the prestige of your work goes far beyond regional limits. There was an assault on a Chinese ship, you acted and Beijing expressed great recognition,” said the portfolio holder. Defense, in an allusion to one of the recent risky missions of this ship.

The Zaire ship, of the Portuguese Navy, has as main missions to reinforce the surveillance and inspection of the maritime spaces of São Tomé and Príncipe, the maritime security of the Gulf of Guinea and the training of the coast guard of this Portuguese-speaking country.

Before the journalists, the Minister of Defense highlighted the importance of the Zaire ship’s action, in a context in which there is an increase in crime in the waters of the Gulf of Guinea.

“About 90% of piracy worldwide takes place in this enlarged area and the presence of the ship Zaire in São Tomé and Príncipe has a very significant deterrent effect”, maintained João Gomes Cravinho.

Also according to the Minister of Defense, “throughout these three years, the ship Zaire has also participated in training missions, currently the garrison is composed of Portuguese and Sao Tome (about one third) and has also contributed to the aid to boats in difficulty in the Gulf of Guinea “.

“The São Tomé garrison is already in rotation. Now, this means that they are not the first São Tomé to be part of the garrison. It is expected that, over the next two or three years, it will be possible to leave in São Tomé and Príncipe a very significant mark and a high qualitative increase in terms of the São Toméan coast guard’s capacity “, he declared.

Before dinner, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Admiral António Ribeiro da Silva, decorated the Sao Tomean coast guard commander Pedro Barros with the São Jorge cross.

“It was with great pride that I received this award. I took on this mission ten months ago. We have a motto: The garrison is one and only, there are no differences between the Portuguese and São Tomé,” said the commander of the São Tomé coast guard and Prince.

To highlight the difficulty of the mission, Pedro Barros highlighted the following data: São Tomé and Príncipe has a sea 160 times larger than its land “.

Lusa Agency

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