On 6 June, President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs met with Defence Minister Andris Sprūds. Meeting, which took place in the Riga Castle, focused on the recent NATO defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels on 5 June. After the briefing by the Minister Sprūds, President and Defence Minister discussed Alliance’s Defence Plans and relevant NATO capability goals approved by defence ministers during the meeting, and also other issues such as funding needs and actions leading to these goals.
“NATO Summit in Hague will be extremely decisive – Alliance will have to give a clear signal about key investments required to strengthen the deterrence and defence posture, and activate the defence industry. United and strong transatlantic alliance is the best deterrence against Russian aggression,” President of Latvia underlined as he outlined national priorities for the forthcoming summit.
“We need to meet NATO defence goals for Latvia – it is our obligation. We are also interested in ensuring that other Allies also meet these goals. Latvia must work hard to fill the capability gaps in priority areas: land force arms procurement, air defence capability development, infrastructure projects. National Armed Forces need more personnel. We do not have to wait for the NATO Summit to make investment decisions regarding our national defence capabilities,” Edgars Rinkēvičs pointed out.
President of Latvia also underlined the importance of defence sector offering factual information to the Latvian people on what different decisions mean and what other steps need to be made to make sure various sectors support defence spending increase.
