On 8 July, President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs met with Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney in Turkey’s capital Ankara.
“Today marks 10 years since the NATO Summit in Warsaw on 8-9 July 2016. During this summit, NATO leaders decided to create enhanced NATO forward presence battle groups in the Baltic countries and Poland. The aim was to strengthen the security of Alliance’s eastern flank and reduce the threats of Russian aggression. Over the course of past decade, under Canadian leadership, since the beginning of this mission, NATO’s presence in Latvia has consistently grown. Latvia now hosts a brigade-size multinational NATO force. Latvia highly appreciates strong military presence of Canadian armed forces in other countries. Several thousands of Canadian troops who form the core of the brigade consisting of fourteen countries, conduct their everyday professional duties at Latvian military camps in Ādaži and Lielvārde, as well as taking part in military training operations all over Latvia,” President of Latvia stressed during the meeting.
Edgars Rinkēvičs also underlined that recent deployment of the NATO Multinational Brigade Latvia to Latvia’s eastern border, where troops get accustomed with the terrain, infrastructure, local population and boost interoperability with local National Armed Force National Guard units, serves as a vital element of stronger national security of Latvia, sending a strong signal of deterrence.
During the meeting, officials of both countries discussed further steps towards closer integration of enhanced forward presence of allied forces into NATO command and control structures.
President Rinkēvičs thanked Canada for the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank initiative. Latvia is one of the countries that co-founded the Bank. Both leaders confirmed that the new Bank is a vital tool for supporting defence industry in current security environment. Mark Carney and Edgars Rinkēvičs noted the growing importance of the Arctic region and need to strengthen the link between security of the Arctic and Baltic regions.
Meeting also focused on support for Ukraine and broader subjects pertaining to deeper economic and trade relations between Latvia and Canada.
