Today, President of Latvia delivered a lecture at the NATO Defence College in Rome. In his lecture, titled ‘The Lessons of History and NATO 2030’, President drew attention to past experiences which show that we need to continue to strengthen the transatlantic security today and in the next decade.
President Levits took everyone back in history, explaining the past of the Baltic states and their reasons for joining NATO in 2004. He specifically stressed: ‘In addition to devoting 2-3% of our GDP to defence, we are introducing a comprehensive defence system which aims to involve all citizens in sharing responsibility for the security of our country.’
Egils Levits pointed out that ‘in our Alliance we are all equal and the defence of NATO’s external borders is the defence of us all’.
He thanked the NATO enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) battle groups for enhancing regional security: ‘eFP improves the security of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with a level of deterrence and defence we could not provide alone. While the eFP Battle Groups do not present any threat to Russia, they clearly demonstrate NATO’s determination to defend every one of our Alliance’s members. eFP also proves that we understand that a threat to any one Ally is a threat to us all’.
On the subject of NATO 2030 and Strategic Concept 2022, President of Latvia echoed NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg’s words about Collective Defence, Crisis Management and Cooperative Security being the three core tasks of NATO. He emphasised the importance of transatlantic links: ‘We must acknowledge the continued - or even increased - importance of the United States’ leadership and the transatlantic link. Europe needs the US, just as the US needs her Allies’.
Egils Levits also talked about challenges faced by the Alliance today which require additional attention: ‘NATO and like-minded partners need to put more emphasis on resilience. Failure to do so may weaken our ability to protect ourselves from non-military threats. It is most important to remember, as we enter a renewed period of geopolitical rivalry, that this is a contest between democracy and authoritarianism’.