The President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, will visit Mozambique next week, leaving Lisbon for Maputo on the 16th of this month. However, before leaving, Marcelo today convened the Council of State for the 14th, to prevent possible "surprising" situations regarding the sending of Portuguese troops that will intervene in the fight between Russia and Ukraine, within NATO.

The meeting, which will take place at the Cidadela Palace in Cascais, will have a single item on the agenda: the situation in Ukraine, according to Portuguese portal Expresso.

The portal, which cites sources in the Belem palace, says that, above all, this is a "preventive" meeting given the President's absence from the country between the 17th and 21st.

"If in that period the situation in Ukraine precipitates the advance of Portuguese troops within NATO forces, a situation that is foreseen and authorized by the Superior Council for National Defense [CSDN], the Head of State will already have a position from his advisory body," the site explains.

The CSDN had already accepted the government's proposal to send 1049 troops, seven aircraft, one ship and 162 tactical vehicles to participate in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.