SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) — The Illinois National Guard is entering an international partnership that aims to further the defense of both the United States and a longtime ally.

The National Guard Bureau and U.S. Department of Defense announced on Sunday the establishment of a State Partnership Program (SPP) between the Illinois National Guard and the Portuguese Armed Forces. SPPs are described as being a key security cooperation tool that facilitates cooperation across all aspects of international civil-military affairs and encouraging people-to-people ties at the state level.

“We are incredibly proud of the role the Illinois National Guard has played in security cooperation around the world,” Governor JB Pritzker said in a news release. “This new partnership with Portugal offers an extension of that global reach as well as new opportunities for the State of Illinois.”

The relationship and ties between Portugal and America date back to before the United States was founded. Notably, the Founding Fathers toasted the signing of the Declaration of Independence with Madeira wine and 70 years later, a number of Portuguese immigrants facing religious persecution left Madeira for Morgan County, becoming the first Portuguese immigrants to settle permanently in Illinois.

A century after that, Portugal and the United States became founding members of NATO.

“Our cooperation with the United States is long-standing, credible, and strong. We are very honored to be establishing this partnership between Illinois National Guard and the Portuguese Armed Forces,” the Portuguese Ministry of Defense added. “We are committed to further deepening our enduring relationship.”

Today, Illinois is home to approximately 12,000 Portuguese Americans, including 13% of the population of Sammons Pont in Kankakee County.

“Illinois is the clear choice for this new Portugal partnership,” Pritzker wrote in his letter endorsing the partnership.

Illinois and Portugal’s SPP is not the first time the state’s National Guard has partnered with a NATO ally. They’ve been partnered with Poland for 32 years, and that relationship is regarded as the gold standard of state partnerships.

“We plan to leverage our well-established experience with the SPP program to help increase security cooperation with our new partners in Portugal,” said Maj. Gen. Rodney Boyd, the Adjutant General of Illinois and Commander of the Illinois National Guard. “There are a multitude of existing areas where both nations’ armed forces will now work together to increase our shared levels of interoperability, global deployability, combat-projection capability, and civilian and military organizational capacity.”

Potential areas of cooperation between Portugal and the Illinois National Guard, officials said, include enhancing mutual cyber capabilities; supporting crisis response and disaster preparedness; leveraging complementary strengths in agriculture, infrastructure, and academia; conducting joint environmental research initiatives in soil management and water usage; and developing operational space capabilities.