Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos n.º 13 - Año: 2019 - Págs.: 243 a 274 265 Bernardo González-Lázaro Sueiras Defense cooperation between Portugal… COOPERATION PORT-SP AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL FORCES AND MIS-SIONS Mixed participation 6) NATO VJTF 2018. 7) EU Battlegroup 2019 and 2021. 8) Operation INHERENT RESOLVE (Iraq). 9) EUTM Mali and EUTM RCA. 10) Multilateral cooperation in the Gulf of Guinea. PROJECTS WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF BOTH COUNTRIES P&S (EU) 6) European Air Transport Fleet (EATF). 7) Joint Deployable Exploitation and Analysis Laboratory (JDEAL). 8) Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR). 9) Maritime Surveillance (MARSUR). 10) Future Governmental Communications via satellite. PESCO (EU) 4) Military mobility 5) Shared information platform for cyber-threats and response to incidents. 6) Strategic System for Command and Control (C2) for missions and CSDP operations. SD (NATO) 7) Cluster for the protection of ports. 8) NATO multinational education and training on Cyber-defense (MN CD E&T). 9) Air-land guided precision weapons. 10) Maritime support tankers. 11) Maritime situational information – International Maritime Information Services (MNMIS). 12) SOF Aviation. Table VII – Cooperation PORT-SP at the regional level Source: Elaboration by the author based on Minutes from the 61st Peninsular General Staff Meeting (2017) Among on-going activities at the regional level (Table VII), the coordinated genera-tion of reaction forces within the framework of the EU (EUBG) and of NATO (VJTF, NRF) stands out, as well as the coordinated contribution to multilateral operations in Iraq (Operation Inherent Resolve, OIR) and in the Sahel (EUTM Mali and EUTM RCA). Furthermore, the two countries jointly participate in the development of P&S projects led by the EDA, in NATO SD projects, and in the PESCO projects recently approved by the EU. The coordination of positions designed to reinforce the importance of the Southern flank of the EU and NATO stands out in the sub-regional area. This is particularly important in a divided Europe regarding the perception of threats because the succes-sive increase of EU and NATO members has moved the European center of gravity towards the East (Drent et al., 2015, 8). Thus, the Northern and Eastern countries in Europe focus their defense on Russia and the crisis in Ukraine, as opposed to Portu-gal, Spain and other Mediterranean allies such as France and Italy, that show greater concern with respect to the South, justified by the consequences of the Arab Spring, the spread of jihadist terrorism and illegal immigration. The number of bilateral activities is very high and has constantly increased since 2012. The economic crisis has imposed budget limitations in both countries which have found in cooperation a way to deal with some of their shortages.
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