During the meeting, the officials discussed preparations for the NATO Summit in Warsaw, as well as Latvian-German bilateral cooperation. The officials agreed that the main objective for current cooperation included finding a solution to geopolitical challenges posed to Europe by the Russian aggression in Ukraine and expansion of ISIL in the Middle East.
“We expect strengthening long-term military presence of the allies in the region from decisions of the upcoming NATO Summit in July by providing protection against all types of threats,” stressed Raimonds Vējonis. He expressed Latvia’s satisfaction with the preparations for the Summit taking into account the common understanding among the member states of the Alliance on the expansion of the presence on the eastern flank of NATO.
Raimonds Vējonis thanked Germany for Vējonis its active engagement in strengthening of regional security, by specially outlining participation of Germany in the NATO-led air patrolling and exercises, NATO Force Integration Unit, as well as support of Germany for the project of the Baltic Media Centre of Excellence and the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga.
Given the fact that strict boundary between the issues of external and internal security disappears more, the officials discussed the need to continue strengthening the resilience against hybrid threats both in the EU and NATO Member States and in the nearby neighbourhood. To respond to those new challenges, co-ordinated action of the countries at both national level and the EU and NATO level was important.