“Latvian Defense Minister warns of Russia’s strategic surprises at Northern Group meeting”

It is wrong for the world community to believe that Russia has been completely weakened by the war in Ukraine and that it is not capable of new strategic surprises, Latvian Defense Minister Ināra Mūrniece (NA) expressed this assessment while addressing the defense ministers of the Northern Group today.

The Ministry of Defense informed the agency LETA that today Mūrniece participated in the meeting of the defense ministers of the Northern Group in Poland. At the meeting, discussing the security issues of NATO’s northeastern flank, the ministers agreed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has significantly changed the security environment. Russia’s aggressive stance poses a direct threat to the security, stability and prosperity of the entire Euro-Atlantic area, so it is very important to continue providing military support to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s brutal aggression.

The Minister of Defense informed colleagues that Latvia’s military support, including the last package of military support to Ukraine, has already exceeded 1% of the country’s gross domestic product. Latvia is currently concentrating its forces to train officers and soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. A week ago, a new Latvian and Canadian initiative was launched to train Ukraine’s youngest officers in Latvia.

On the other hand, when discussing the priorities of the Northern Group countries at the NATO summit in Vilnius, the defense ministers expressed their belief that in order to confront the current and future threats posed by Russia, the decisions taken at the Vilnius summit must strengthen the deterrence and defense capabilities of the Alliance in the region.

The Nordic Group is an informal cooperation forum that includes twelve countries – Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland, the three Baltic states, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and Great Britain. The members of the group are united by the goal of developing joint cooperation projects in the field of defense.

The defense ministers of the Northern Group meet twice a year. Every six months, the leadership of the Northern Group is entrusted to a different member state, and currently the leading country of the Northern Group is Poland.