This meeting takes place in the context of an official campaign for the presidential elections of 18 January – in which two Councillors of State, Luís Marques Mendes and André Ventura, are running and have announced their attendance – and six days after the US attack on Venezuela, with the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, who was forcibly taken to the United States of America.

The Council of State will meet following a visit by the Prime Minister to Kiev on 20 December, during which Luís Montenegro declared that "nothing prevents" Portugal from sending troops to Ukraine in times of peace and, in a press conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky, announced an agreement for the joint production of underwater drones.

This will be the 40th and most likely the last meeting of the presidential political advisory body during Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s terms, following a hiatus of almost ten months since the previous one, held on 13 March of last year, for the purposes of dissolving parliament, which led to the early legislative elections of 18 May.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa wants this political advisory body to analyse "Europe’s position in terms of financial support for Ukraine, which commits states for the future, due to European debt” and also "a Portuguese military commitment or not, in the event of a ceasefire in the future".