President of Latvia Egils Levits was invited by i24 NEWS programme Malard en liberté ("Malard at Large") as this week’s guest interviewed by Christian Malard, channels diplomatic correspondent, about Russian aggression against Ukraine.
‘There is a problem – Russia wants the return of the previous, Soviet Empire. But the democratic world will always support the rules-based international order. And Latvia also supports such order because it guarantees peace,’ Egils Levits said in the opening part of the interview.
When asked about building European Union’s defence, President Levits said, ‘We have to first see what has divided Europe. With growing global importance of the European Union in the world in the last decades, Europe has grown more unified than ever before. Of course, European Union and NATO sometimes goes into deeper discussion about various issues, but we have the same goals. We decide how to reach these goals together’.
Egils Levits also spoke about Latvia-Russia relations since 2004 when Latvia joined NATO. ‘Latvia joined NATO and European Union in 2004. We feel safer since. Russia does not like these changes and uses aggression to revert these processes. But we will stand firmly for our values and our democratic system,’ President Levits said.
Talking about deployment of additional US troops to Baltics to discourage a Russian aggression, President of Latvia underlined, ‘Article 5 of NATO Treaty says that aggression against one member state of NATO automatically means aggression against all 30 member states. NATO is based on mutual solidarity. There is also Article 3 of the Treaty of NATO, which says that each member state must be prepared to defend itself. International environment is deteriorating therefore we are preparing to defend ourselves.’
‘Huge empires have always struggled with letting go of their former colonies. Colonies and empires were the way forward in the 19th century, but not in 20th or 21st century. Authoritarian regimes like Russia exploit the sentiment of lost colonies, lost empires for domestic purposes. That is what Putin’s Russia does at the moment. They are trying to revive past glory and show that Soviet Empire did not implode because its system failed,’ Egils Levits concluded.
‘Russia seized a part of territory of Georgia, then Crimea and Donbas in Ukraine. And now they are threatening Ukraine again. Ukraine has not seized a part of the territory of Russia. It is Russia that invaded and annexed part of Ukraine. We cannot accept that because we are committed to international rules-based order, which is basis for peace in the world,’ President Levits said about Russia’s more recent military interventions in Europe.
Egils Levits concluded the interview by re-iterating Latvia’s support to Ukraine. ‘Latvia will continue to stand in solidarity with Ukraine. Estonia, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, USA and Latvia have already sent military help to Ukraine. Latvia will support Ukraine. We condemn any type of aggression against sovereign and free states,’ President said.
Full length interview available here: https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/europe/1644959946-latvian-president-talks-to-christian-malard-amid-russia-ukraine-crisis