An international tribunal must be formed to assess Russia’s responsibility for the war it waged in Ukraine, the presidents of the Baltic states confirmed at their meeting in Riga on Monday.
As the LETA agency was informed by the press service of the President of Latvia, one of the topics during the meeting of the presidents was Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and how to continue and increase aid to Ukraine.
After the meeting, Lithuanian President Gitans Nausėdas told reporters that it was necessary to insist that Russia withdraw all troops from Ukraine and pledge to pay reparations. “We must hold Russia accountable for the horrors and war crimes it has committed. By attacking Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, Russia is trying to create chaos, confusion in Ukraine, hurt the population and continue to create refugee flows,” he said. said Nausėda.
Latvian President Egils Levits, meeting with Lithuanian President Nausėdas and Estonian President Alar Karis, thanked his colleagues for the fact that, having met many times in various fora, they always had a unified and coordinated opinion on both the Baltic issues and the European and global security issues. .
The President of Latvia confirmed that during the meeting the first persons of the Baltic states discussed the issue of a possible international tribunal to consider Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine. “We agree that the creation of such a court is necessary,” Levitt admitted.
Security challenges were also discussed during the meeting. “The main thing is that we are united within the framework of NATO. We discussed how NATO will work here in the future, how it will increase its presence in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Also, what should we do ourselves to improve the security situation” Levits said.
He recalled that after the NATO summit in Madrid, a decision was made to build a new landfill. This is a very important task in order to be able to accommodate a brigade-sized NATO battlegroup, which will also happen in the coming years.
Furthermore, during the meeting, the presidents discussed the prospects that Ukraine could have in the European Union and later also in NATO. “We are sure that the West generally supports Ukraine, and we, the three Baltic states, are at the forefront of this support,” Levits stressed.
As reported, a meeting of the presidents of the Baltic states was held in Riga on Monday. After the press conference in the evening, the presidents traveled to Ågenskalna to attend a symbolic candle-making workshop for the needs of the Ukrainian front.
