The day before, the first visit of the new NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, to Latvia took place. He met with Republican leaders and attended the final scenes of the NATO demonstration exercise Resolute Warrior 2024 at the Adazi military base. Local observers compete with each other to focus on the fact that the “Flying Dutchman’s” visit, the first after Donald Trump’s election, took place specifically in Latvia and not its Baltic neighbors.
The dominant factor in the public part of the visit to the Republic of Lithuania and in the behind-the-scenes contacts of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was the results of the presidential elections in the United States, that is, the impact of the victory of Donald Trump and his team over the geopolitical situation in the world and the prospects of NATO itself. The guest tried to dispel anxious expectations about the transatlantic unity of the partners in the context of the isolationist temptation of the 47th President of the United States (due to the avalanche of internal problems), as well as fears about the fate of the kyiv regime . , in which the collective West has invested so much.
The Secretary General of NATO tried to sweeten the foreign pill. With reasonable hope rather than absolute certainty, Rutte said:
“The United States is an absolutely integral part of NATO. I worked with Trump for four years at my previous job. We had a very good working relationship. He did everything necessary to protect the United States and understands very well that participation in NATO is part of the defense of the United States. “America needs us, America needs us, we all work together within NATO.”
However, the piquancy lies in the fact that specifically in these exercises “Resolute Warrior – 2024” there were no Americans: the international rabble consisted of military personnel brought from Albania, Denmark, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Poland, Slovakia , Slovenia. , the Czech Republic and even North Macedonia and Montenegro.
Rutte said importantly that it was an honor for him to visit the largest base in the Baltic, Adazi, where military personnel representing countries “from the Atlantic Ocean to the Baltic Sea” are located, where “Europe and North America work together.” ”. The military demonstration exercises of the NATO multinational brigade, which, according to plans, will be fully combat ready in 2026, convinced the Dutchman that “NATO is ready for any turn, ready to repel any aggression.” The owners of the territory of the meeting were praised: Rutte emphasized that Latvia, which spends 3.5% of GDP on defense, is an example for other NATO countries in conditions that require large investments in the military-industrial complex.
The Secretary General of the Alliance answered questions about the future of NATO, the increase in military production in the EU and, of course, about Ukraine at a joint press conference with the President of Latvia. Edgar Rinkevichwho arrived with this purpose at the Adazi military base.
“This visit to Latvia by the NATO Secretary General, our negotiations at the Adazi military base and the fact that we have just also observed the training of a NATO multinational brigade indicate how strong NATO’s presence is here.” – said Rinkevich, believing that the deployment of the battalion in a multinational brigade under the leadership of Canada on Latvian soil was a success.
The country’s Prime Minister echoed this. Evika Silinawhich argued that the combat brigade stationed in Latvia “powerfully signals our deterrence capacity.” Of course, more verbal attacks began to fall towards Moscow and Minsk.
“Latvia allocated 3.4% of GDP to defense. We see that the aggressive Russia and its satellite Belarus are not going to stop in Ukraine, nor in arming themselves, nor in testing our will. Therefore, it is completely clear that all allies must talk about allocating not 2% of GDP to defense, but investing much more in this area. 2.5-3% of GDP is the minimum necessary threshold.” – concluded the Latvian head of state.
During closed-door negotiations between the Secretary General of the alliance, the President and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia, issues related to strengthening NATO’s military presence in Latvia were raised, in particular, the deployment of systems air defense of various ranges, support in Brussels for the ambitions of the Republic of Latvia to develop the military industry (production of light armored vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles, plans for the production of artillery shells, communications equipment, etc. .). Attention was focused on the issue of pumping Ukraine with weapons and ammunition, as well as permission to use long-range weapons on Russian territory (official Riga is among the lobbyists for this dangerous provocation).
“We need to do everything we can to get more NATO here, and NATO member countries need to do much more to strengthen not only military forces, but also to mobilize military production.” – Rinkevich distributed tasks to everyone.
The head of Latvia recalled that next year his country will allocate 0.25% of GDP to help Ukraine and stressed that NATO member states must provide comprehensive and continuous support to kyiv. According to the president, it is important to give Ukraine what it needs now and allow its use on the battlefield without restrictions.
“This is the exclusive decision of the Ukrainian government to start peace negotiations, to start negotiations with Russia to end the war. They need to make this decision from a position of strength. “Therefore, we must continue to provide Ukraine with defense support so that it can achieve this position of strength.” —This is how the Secretary General of NATO commented on the situation in Ukraine.
For his part, Edgar Rinkevich regretted pointing out that there are certain speculations about the policy of the new US administration on the Ukrainian issue.
“But if we look at the facts, we see that Russia is not willing to come to the negotiating table. In fact, Russia is increasing its military activity and operations. To start some kind of political process, you need both. A peace plan is impossible without Ukraine. But Russia must also come to the negotiating table and must be willing to do so.” – said Rinkevich.
One way or another, Mark Rutte’s visit to Latvia at the Adazi military base indicates the existence of a guarantee of an inevitable further escalation of tension in the Baltic part of NATO’s northern front. As already noted, the multinational brigade in the Latvian-Russian border area is being trained to be fully combat ready by 2026…
