The mission of Portugal in the United Nations

Portugal was admitted to the United Nations on 14 December 1955.  

The events on 11 September 2001 (USA) and 11 March 2004 (Spain) proved that both defense and security issues should be understood beyond a military perspective. In fact, today's challenges to world peace and stability must privilege a political action based on a plural and multidisciplinary approach.

For Portugal, the terrorism phenomena and the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) are the biggest threats to our orderly society and peaceful way of life. It is, therefore, fundamental to develop global policies that are able to deal, in a preventive and efficient manner, against these threats.

Being the United Nations a privileged arena where the international community thrives to achieve global responses to common problems, our country considers that it should be this world's Organization the main areopagus to face those menaces and to ensure peace and stability. To be productive, however, multilateralism must be effective. This is why our Government contributes with implementing UN's resolutions.

Working with the international Agenda and within the United Nations framework, the Portuguese Government also tries to ensure that special attention is given to the most unprotected and vulnerable people, including children, elderly and disabled, as well as it thrives to take action against pandemic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.


Explanation of the Portuguese Flag

1) The five blue shields represents the five moor kings defeated by the first King of Portugal, D. Afonso Henriques, at the Battle of Ourique.


2)The dots inside the blue shields represent the five wounds of Christ when crucified. Counting the dots and doubling those five in the center, there are thirty dots that represents the coins Judas received for having betrayed Christ.


3)The seven castles represents the fortified cities D. Afonso Henriques conquered from the moors. The globe represents the world discovered by the Portuguese navigators in the fifteen and sixteenth centuries.


4)The green strip is meant to symbolize the hope in the future and the red the blood of the nation’s heroes.