On 18 June, a meeting took place at the Riga Castle between President Edgars Rinkēvičs and the senior officials involved in the implementation of Latvia’s foreign policy – Speaker of the Saeima Daiga Mieriņa, Prime Minister Evika Siliņa, Minister of Foreign Affairs Baiba Braže, and Head of the Saeima Foreign Affairs Committee Ināra Mūrniece. The discussions focused on preparations for the upcoming NATO Summit, which will be held on 24–25 June in The Hague, the capital of the Netherlands, as well as the situation in the Middle East.
“The central issue at the upcoming NATO Summit in The Hague will be the need for the Alliance’s member states to strengthen their defence capabilities and increase defence spending to 5% of their gross domestic product, along with setting timeframe by which this objective must be met. This is particularly important now, given the direct and long-term threat posed to the Alliance by Russia,” said President Rinkēvičs following the meeting.
