The Azores have long been treated as Portugal’s piggy bank—then and now. Contexts change, governments rotate, rhetoric evolves, but the underlying dynamic remains stubbornly familiar: when Lisbon needs to assert itself on the global stage, it reaches into the Atlantic. Nowhere is this clearer than in the pending United Nations decision on extending Portugal’s Exclusive Economic Zone. The Azores account for an extraordinary 984,300 square kilometers of maritime territory—more than 57 percent of Portugal’s EEZ and nearly 30 percent of the European Union’s. That oceanic vastness is not an abstraction; it is the geopolitical backbone of Portugal’s maritime claim. And yet, the region that makes such stature possible continues to be treated as peripheral when the spoils are discussed.

Marine biological resources are currently under the exclusive management of the European Union. Still, the Portuguese Republic retains the prerogative to distribute, as it sees fit, the benefits derived from studies assessing the exploitable wealth of Azorean waters. The pattern is as old as it is predictable: central authority claims strategic leverage while the Autonomous Region waits for its share. Portugal’s history reveals a reluctance—an avarice, even—when it comes to equitable distribution with the Azores. Today, that reluctance appears coupled with a troubling nostalgia. In its approach to the United States, Lisbon seems to be drifting back toward a “hat in hand” diplomacy reminiscent of the Estado Novo era. Fifty years after the democratic revolution, Portugal’s highest political officials appear either unwilling or unable to recognize that the world has shifted. The Azores cannot afford to remain frozen in a 1993 diplomatic arrangement left simmering in bureaucratic limbo, the result of successive foreign ministers declining to reopen serious negotiations with Washington.

In the current global landscape—defined by volatility and conflict stamped, directly or indirectly, with the seal of American power—the Azores find themselves exposed. As tensions rise across multiple theaters, nations hosting U.S.-used air bases increasingly fall within the perimeter of strategic risk. The Azores are no exception. What safeguards, precisely, does Portugal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs envision to protect the islands and their people in the event of escalation? The question is neither ideological nor alarmist; it is practical and urgent. Portugal must present the United States with a forward-looking proposal—one that redefines the rules governing the use of Azorean territory in light of contemporary geopolitical realities. The old formulas are no longer adequate in a world where air bases can become targets.

Yet Lisbon hesitates. The existing agreement with Washington is treated as a diplomatic card to be played in broader economic negotiations, particularly as Atlantic platforms gain prominence as logistical hubs linking Europe and North America. In this calculation, the Azores once again become leverage rather than stakeholders. Meanwhile, successive foreign ministers under António Costa—first Augusto Santos Silva, then João Gomes Cravinho—consistently avoided responding to the Autonomous Region’s repeated calls to reopen the agreement. Those appeals came first from Vasco Cordeiro and later from José Manuel Bolieiro, both presidents of the Regional Government, each urging the Republic to initiate a fair and balanced revision of the Portugal–United States accord.

The responsibility now rests squarely with the current Regional Government to keep this issue on the national agenda—persistently, even relentlessly—until Lisbon either engages in earnest or reveals its indifference. The agreement between Portugal and the United States must serve both nations, but it must also do justice to the Azores. Since the expiration of the 1992 agreement, the United States has retained advantages extending beyond Terceira, including operational flexibility in islands such as São Miguel and Santa Maria. That evolving footprint demands a corresponding evolution in oversight and compensation.

An agreement of such magnitude cannot remain a piece of paper tucked away in a drawer—retrieved only when crisis erupts. Diplomacy should anticipate problems, not merely react to them. The Azores are not a piggy bank to be cracked open in moments of national need. They are a living region with citizens whose security, dignity, and future must be treated as more than collateral in Atlantic strategy.

Editorial of Correio dos Açores, March 1, 2026

Américo Natalino Viveiros is the editor of the newspaper Correio dos Açores. He was a member of various governments of the Mota Amaral administrations in the Regional Government.

NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from various leading thinkers and writers in the Azores, providing the diaspora and those interested in the current state of the Azores with insight into the diverse opinions on some of the archipelago’s key issues.

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL).