Latvia may have to increase its defense spending and adopt the measure of compulsory military service for all its citizens, regardless of gender, in order to face potential threats from Russia, as the country’s president Egils Levits told Reuters.
Latvia, a member of NATO and the European Union, plans to gradually increase its defense budget to 2.5% of GDP by 2025 from around 2% today, as it bolsters its security following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
Levitz, 67, said today that existing defense spending plans include building new military bases to accommodate more troops from NATO allies – something agreed at the Madrid summit last month. But he stressed that Latvia — one of the former Soviet republics, like Ukraine — may have to spend more.
“Security is a priority of our policy today,” Levitz told Reuters. “There is already the commitment for 2.5% (of GDP), but maybe it won’t be enough and we should be prepared for that,” he added.
The president of neighboring Lithuania has called for his country’s defense spending to rise to 3% after Poland set the same target.
In Latvia, Defense Minister Artis Pabriks has advocated the reinstatement of compulsory military service which was abandoned in the mid-2000s. For his part, President Levics emphasizes that the measure of conscription should apply to all citizens regardless gender.
The two proposed changes (conscription and increased defense spending) will be scrutinized by parliament before they come into effect. The Ministry of Defense wants conscription to become compulsory in Latvia from 2028.
Latvia was among the first countries to call for $300 billion in Russian foreign reserves frozen by Western sanctions to be used to rebuild Ukraine, and Levits said lawyers were considering how that might be implemented. . “Russia’s violation of international law is the worst since World War II, and international law also provides for reparations,” he explained. “We must not allow a state to violate international law without consequences,” he added.
Russia calls the invasion of Ukraine a “special military operation” aimed at “demilitarizing” and “de-Naziizing” its neighbor, while denying that its troops are targeting civilians. He calls NATO an “aggressive bloc” but says he wants to avoid a head-on confrontation.
Asked whether he expected any immediate conflict between the Baltic states and Russia, the Latvian president replied: “No… first and foremost, because NATO is capable of defending each of its member states and there is a very strong political will to do so “.
Source: Capital
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