Lemberg’s previous skepticism about NATO and its security guarantees

What did Lemberg tell about NATO before?

As Lemberg dismissed a reminder of his previous NATO skepticism on the show, Re:Check checked the news archives.

2001: NATO expansion does not provide security guarantees

In the LETA agency’s archive, news with Lemberg’s opinion can be found in different time periods. For example, the headline of the news of October 8, 2001 says: “Lemberg calls for a discussion on the need for Latvia to join NATO”.

Shortly before that, the United States was in New York happened September 11 terrorist attack. Lembergs pointed to the threat of terrorism and expressed that the recent tragedy has shown that NATO cannot provide any security guarantees to existing member states.

However, he has also said this before. “Even before the September 11 tragedy in the USA, I emphasized that the arithmetical expansion of NATO currently does not guarantee security for anyone, but the main attention and the efforts of the entire democratic world should be directed to the fight against international terrorism, including that NATO should cooperate more actively with Russia,” LETA recounts what Lemberg said.

2002: It is not going to be so simple and self-evident to give up even a part of Latvia’s independence

On November 25, 2002, a few days after Latvia was invited to join NATO, LETA published a message with the headline: “Lemberg: joining NATO, Latvia is exposed to the threat of international terrorism”.

He said that NATO, as it is now, will not solve Latvia’s security, but will reduce it. “Latvia is exposed to the threat of international terrorism by becoming a member of NATO,” LETA quotes Lemberga. The message also reads Lemberg’s statement that Latvia’s entry into any international organizations implies the loss of a part of its independence and how “the deputy who voted for Latvia’s independence is not going to give up even a part of Latvia’s independence so simply and naturally”.