The President of the Government of the Azores, Vasco Cordeiro, will attend the 37th meeting of the Permanent Bilateral Commission between Portugal and the United States of America to take place in Washington next Thursday.
 
This will be the sixth time that Vasco Cordeiro participates in the meetings of this body established under the 1995 Defence and Cooperation Agreement following the U.S. decision to reduce its military and civilian presence in Terceira Air Base, announced in late 2012.
 
Speaking to journalists, the President of the Government recalled that, regarding the Lajes Air Base process, several efforts were undertaken in labour issues, with positive results, namely the fact that there were no redundancies but rather terminations by mutual agreement.
 
"But there is work that still needs to be completed, especially regard to environmental issues. This is our priority for the meeting," Vasco Cordeiro said, noting that he intends to reiterate the urgency of this process in the Washington bilateral meeting.
 
The previous meeting of the Permanent Bilateral Commission took place in Sintra in November 2016.