Investing in Defense: Latvia’s Efforts to Strengthen its Capabilities and NATO’s Forces

On Thursday, Mūrniece met with Robinson to discuss the priorities of the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius, Latvia’s interests in strengthening NATO’s forces and capabilities, as well as progress in implementing the decisions of the NATO Madrid summit.

During the meeting, Mūrniece emphasized that Latvia continues to invest resources to strengthen its defense capabilities, including by increasing the defense budget and introducing the national defense service. The Minister of Defense also highlighted the positive progress in increasing the Canadian-led NATO expanded presence battle group in Latvia to the level of a brigade.

During the meeting, Robinson thanked the minister for Latvia’s military and political support to Ukraine so far, mentioning that Latvia continues to set an example for the entire Alliance.

In July of this year, the annual NATO summit will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania, during which the Allies will assess the achievements and provide guidelines for NATO’s future strategic direction. Latvia’s goal for this year’s NATO summit in Vilnius is to strengthen NATO’s firm power and ensure decision-making that would promote NATO’s defense and deterrence capabilities in the long term.