On 5 August, President Edgars Rinkēvičs participated in the 24th gathering of Latvian politically repressed persons in Ikšķile.
‘Your work, daily reminding of the tragic pages of our people and country’s history, being still living witnesses of the atrocities that can and have been committed by Stalin's regime, which unfortunately is now embodied in the current policy of the Russian Federation, is a reminder to us – those who are currently leading the country, and those who are responsible for the fate of our people and country – that there are things that must never be repeated.
One of the priorities of my work, which I have clearly defined when I took office as President, is strengthening the security of our country. Our national defence is on a good footing, it is properly funded. Our allies have been here for several years. Just recently, before the NATO Summit in Vilnius, it was announced that even more of our allies would be coming here to Latvia. We have restored and are successfully implementing the National Defence Service. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I do not think anyone doubts our national defence capabilities.
Unfortunately, the situation is different when it comes to strengthening the internal security of our country. There is still a lot of work that need to be done that have been unforgivably delayed – the construction of the country's eastern border, the financing of our national internal affairs system. Recently, there has been a great deal of confusion about the lenient sentences and actions in the area of both hate crimes and national security crimes. These are issues that both I and our country's National Security Council will be working on, because we must all understand that the security of our country is indivisible. We cannot have a situation in which our soldiers will defend our country, but we will have very, very serious problems inside the country.
The second thing I would definitely like to emphasise is that our international situation is complicated, but our allies and our friends will always be by our side and will help us. But we also have a responsibility towards our Ukrainian friends and allies. The Ukrainians continue to fight and we must continue to support Ukraine in every way. Sometimes it feels like a bit of fatigue and getting used to the news from the front. That is what we should remember every day: at the moment, all support, even good thoughts, all kinds of help, not only military, help to protect our country and help Ukraine to hold on. Therefore, I call on everyone to continue to support Ukraine!
Internationally, the bitter historical experience of our country and our people now helps and helped me in my previous work to explain why Latvia and other Baltic countries, why other Eastern and Central European countries are so supportive of Ukraine. I remind these people of the deportations of 1941 and 1949. What is happening to Ukrainian children in Ukraine is what happened to many of you when you were little children, to your parents and grandparents. At that moment, the leaders and foreign ministers of Asia, Africa and Latin America are thinking. We need to talk more about our history! We need to strengthen our national identity more! In this respect, it is a big mistake that history lessons are no longer taught as a separate subject in schools. I hope that the Ministry of Education and Science is thinking of correcting this mistake. The subject of history must return to schools and our students and children must learn it fully. I hope that this will be one of the tasks that both the Ministry of Education and Science and the Government - and I will be following this up – will actually do. There are things that may have been done with good intentions, but the result is bad. We need to be reminded of both the bright and the tragic pages of our nation, because without history there is no future.
I would like to conclude by saying thank you very much for being here in such large numbers, even though your ranks are growing thinner. I very much look forward to your support and close cooperation during my term of office. I am confident that together we will succeed in not only strengthening our country, but also in developing it and making it one of the most beautiful, magnificent, and also the most developed countries in Europe,’ said President E. Rinkēvičs in his address.
