President of Latvia to Al Jazeera.. Disagreements within NATO regarding the situation in the Middle East | news

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevich said – in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera – that his country supports participation in enhancing stability in the Strait of Hormuz, but he ruled out that the 36th NATO summit would take a decision on the Strait.

Latvia is participating in the NATO summit held in the Turkish capital, Ankara, with the participation of many NATO leaders, including US President Donald Trump, which focuses on enhancing European defense spending and capabilities and concluding huge deals to purchase weapons, in light of intense American pressure to achieve a greater balance in burden-sharing among NATO members.

In response to a question about the readiness of some European Union countries participating in ensuring the security of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, Rinkević stressed that neither the government nor the parliament in Latvia had taken an official decision with the allies in NATO, expressing his belief that the NATO summit would not take any official decision in this regard. He believed that the situation in the Middle East needed to be discussed at the NATO summit in Ankara, acknowledging the existence of differences within the alliance countries regarding the situation in the region.

The President of Latvia spoke about the issue of military spending within NATO, and said that many countries need to strengthen their military industrial capabilities, and the alliance must strengthen the defenses of its eastern wing members. He explained that the members of the alliance agreed last year that the contribution rate of each member would reach 5% of the gross domestic product by 2035.

He added that what is important for NATO countries is not to increase spending, but rather how to spend it better and make the defense industries more capable. He said that if these matters were agreed upon, the Ankara summit would be successful.

Tightening sanctions on Russia

Regarding the Ukraine file, the President of Latvia said that NATO countries do not differ in their support for Ukraine, but only in the amount of support provided to it. Some countries want more support and others prefer less support. He stressed that the Ukrainian issue will be discussed during the summit hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

While he accused Russia of refusing to engage in the dialogue, the President of Latvia called for intensifying economic pressure on Russia to end its war on Ukraine, and said: “We will continue to support Ukraine in confronting Russian aggression.”

Regarding Russia’s accusation that his country helped Ukraine launch drones on its territory, the Al Jazeera guest said, “Russia is lying.”, “No Baltic country has attacked it.”

Regarding the reports about Latvia establishing a drone factory with the participation of Ukraine, he merely said that his country supports Kiev and sent it a lot of military equipment like other European countries, and he said: “We want to learn from Ukraine how to respond to hostile drones.”