Latvia’s Foreign Minister has accepted Finland’s and Sweden’s plans to join the alliance
Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics has said his country approves Finland and Sweden joining NATO, noting that their addition to the US-led military bloc will turn the Baltic Sea into a “NATO sea” in a Friday interview with the Financial Times.
Together with its counterparts in Estonia and Lithuania, Rinkevics expressed his eagerness to ratify the two Nordic countries’ membership applications. All three told the Times that they would benefit from the military strength of Finland and Sweden, especially Finland’s US fighter fleet.
Despite his inability to support Russia’s northern neighbors’ accession to NATO, Rinkevics is hoping for more NATO troops in his country. The transformation of the Baltic Sea into a NATO asset “does not change our demands for NATO to increase [the] The Baltic Sea Region “, FM said, adding that” there are still issues to be resolved “and that” the current security situation requires bolder plans by the alliance. “
While NATO sent 1,000 extra troops each to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from European member states earlier this year, the countries have demanded more and required brigades of 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers and an air force upgrade that would allow them to shoot down Russian plan.
Prior to Moscow’s attack on Ukraine, the Baltics claimed that they were worried that Russia would potentially invade their region via the Suwalki Gap, the comparatively short (65 km) border region between Poland and Lithuania sandwiched between Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad region. All three countries reportedly increase their defense spending to 2.5% of GDP, well above NATO’s requirement of 2%.
Russia warned on Thursday that Finland’s accession to the bloc would pose a direct threat and demand a response from Moscow following the country’s announcement that it plans to apply for membership with a view to submitting a formal application as soon as next Monday. Finland shares an 833 km (1,340 kilometers) land border with Russia.
Sweden reportedly plans to make its own formal request to join NATO next week, although some factions of the government are more enthusiastic than others about the outlook.
(RT.com)
Source: sn.dk