On 21 October, President of Latvia Egils Levits participated in the Riga Conference 2022 at the National Library of Latvia, stressing that it is one of the most important conferences in the region dedicated to security issues.
Opening the conference, the President of Latvia said: "At the beginning of the 20th century, globalisation was the main slogan of the West; now it is resilience - the resilience of our values, democracies and ways of life. This is a time of great opportunity for the West to become more resilient and also more open to other democracies that share Western values. The European Union as an organisation is a very reliable tool to do this."
Speaking about Russia's war in Ukraine, the President of Latvia encouraged an exchange of views on the need for a special international tribunal to investigate the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine. "The crime of aggression is not comparable to war crimes. The crime of aggression is the responsibility of the state, as is the payment of reparations to Ukraine. Impunity for such crimes is unacceptable, as it would mean weakening the standard of international law that currently prohibits such aggressive wars," said E. Levits.
Along with President Levits, former Swedish Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt and Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Dr. Christoph Heusgen took part at the opening discussion. The conversation was led by Sandra Kalniete, a member of the European Parliament.
