During the meeting, the President of Latvia and the Chief of Staff Commander discussed the important decisions made at the NATO Summit in Warsaw to strengthen the defensibility of the Alliance, including increasing presence of the NATO in the Member States of the Eastern flank. “These are new steps to strengthen collective defence, and I am pleased that the NATO Member States have a common understanding on the necessity of support to the Baltic region,” said Raimonds Vējonis.
The President of Latvia confirmed that Latvia highly appreciated the British support to the Latvian Armed Forces since the restoration of independence and the good bilateral cooperation with the ARRC: “Engagement of a representative of our country at the ARRC Headquarters contributes a lot to both parties: Latvia obtains operational experience in one of the leading NATO headquarters, while the ARRC obtains more in-depth understanding about the security issues of the Baltic Sea region.”
ARRC is a multinational headquarters of the NATO land rapid reaction corps, whose task is to be ready to be deployed and operate in a certain place under the auspices of the NATO, the EU, a coalition, or a particular country, while ensuring combined and joint operations when needed. It is part of NATO’s corps that can be quickly deployed for NATO operations if needed. Latvia is represented in the ARRC since August 2014, and Latvia is a full-fledged ARRC Member State since 1 January 2015. A staff officer, Lieutenant Colonel Igors Kļaviņš, represents Latvia in the ARRC.
President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis and First Lady of Latvia Iveta Vējone went on official visit to the United Kingdom, which lasts from July 18 to July 20. Within the framework of the official visit, the President of Latvia had an audience at Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, a meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson, a meeting with Madam Speaker of the UK House of Lords Baroness D'Souza and Speaker of the UK House of Commons John Bercow, as well as meetings with representatives of the Latvian community.