He thanked the US Congress for active involvement by adopting significant decisions pertaining to strengthening the safety of the Baltic region. Raimonds Vējonis also confirmed that Latvia intended to strengthen the eastern border of the country, and he noted the necessity to cooperate with the USA to the effect.
The US Senators highlighted the need to work on diversification of energy sources among the aspects of regional security. The President of Latvia accentuated that Latvia worked on liberalisation of gas market and development of energy interconnections, including use of alternative energy sources. “When I was the Minister for Environment, I actively supported wider use of alternative energy. However, situation in Latvia, unfortunately, is complicated due to the laws that increase the cost of green energy and exclusive position of “Latvijas Gāze” on the energy market,” explained Raimonds Vējonis.
During the conversation, the Latvian side also stressed that launch of a LNG terminal in Klaipeda was significant contribution to strengthening energy security in the Baltic region that it was important that Latvia and Estonia could also use the terminal located in Lithuania on favourable conditions.
Replying to concerns expressed by Senator John McCain that Latvia still did not allocate adequate funding for defence, the Prime Minister of Latvia Laimdota Straujuma informed the US Senators that Latvia planned to increase its defence expenditure up to 2 percent of GDP by 2018. “Currently, the Latvian government discusses the state budget for 2016 and we are keeping that goal in mind. We are very confident about this budgetary priority,” said Laimdota Straujuma.
The Prime Minister also took the opportunity to remind openness of Latvia to investment from the US and the fact that our country appreciated the investment of the USA in Latvian economy during the conversation. In his turn, the President of Latvia expressed his appreciation to the USA for its support while stabilizing the Ukrainian economy and promoting the reforms required for defence of that country, and for taking a strong international position as regards the Russian aggression in Ukraine.
