Riga, Sept. 13, LETA. Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs (JV) said during a meeting of the Baltic and Polish Foreign and Defense Ministers today that NATO Allies and European Union (EU) partners need to continue working on concrete solutions to strengthen the protection of our region, including financial support for strengthening the EU’s external border infrastructure. ).
As LETA was informed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), Rinkēvičs said this in the context of the fact that the Belarussian regime uses migration as a hybrid weapon.
The issues of NATO partnerships were discussed in a separate working session of the Foreign Ministers. Given the geopolitical location of the Baltic States and Poland, it is important to ensure security and stability in the region, contributing to the stability and resilience of partners, this view was expressed by officials. The foreign ministers also discussed the Zapad-21 strategic-level military exercise in the region, which is being closely monitored as it raises additional concerns about the difficult situation in Belarus and the conditions surrounding Belarus’s hybrid attack on the NATO-EU external border.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs notes that for the first time in Riga, a historic, joint meeting of the Baltic and Polish Foreign and Defense Ministers is taking place. During the meeting, the ministers discussed current security policy issues and regional challenges, the decisions of the NATO Heads of State and Government meeting in Brussels in June, as well as exchanged views on the development of the new NATO Strategic Concept and NATO’s partnership policy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The officials emphasized that the NATO Brussels Summit reaffirmed transatlantic unity and commitment to further strengthening the Alliance over the next decade. Ministers stated that one of the main tasks at the moment is the revision of NATO’s Strategic Concept, which is planned to be approved at the 2022 meeting of NATO Heads of State and Government in Madrid.
Rinkēvičs noted that NATO’s central role in defense and deterrence must be maintained in the concept, but it is equally important to describe the strategic security environment in accordance with today’s realities, including areas such as strengthening resilience, new and revolutionary technology challenges and EU-NATO cooperation.
The Baltic states and Poland have many common interests in the context of both NATO and the wider regional security policy, but officials agreed that the priority is NATO’s collective defense and deterrence, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From a regional security perspective, the participants acknowledged that the solidarity shown by the Allies through a regional presence is an essential value of the transatlantic relationship and an indispensable precondition for defense.
At the end of the meeting, the ministers agreed that in order to strengthen the vector of common interests, coordination between the four countries of the NATO Eastern Flank is important and must continue in the future, the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs note.
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