On 22 February, President of Latvia Egils Levits went to Warsaw to meet with US President Joe Biden, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and other heads of NATO Eastern Flank (B9, Bucharest 9) countries during the Warsaw summit. During the summit, leaders confirmed their readiness to continue coordinating NATO response to war in Ukraine and further efforts to strengthen security in Europe and NATO Eastern Flank in particular. Summit resulted in adoption of joint statement.
In his address to other heads of state, President Levits presented Latvia’s national vision for achieving lasting peace in Europe and securing rules-based international order. ‘Ukraine must win the war and Russia must lose. There is no other way to maintain sustainable peace in Europe and the rules-based international order. Therefore, we must be prepared to do everything necessary to ensure that Ukraine wins. This is not just a question of aircraft but of our determination to uphold our values in the longer term,’ President of Latvia stressed.
According to Egils Levits, it is vital to hold Russia accountable for its war crimes against Ukraine. ‘Ukraine’s future and international order will be safe only if Russia is held accountable by a special international tribunal,’ President pointed out.
It is necessary to give Ukraine a clear future perspective with regard to membership in NATO and post-war security guarantees. ‘Ukraine wants to join NATO and Latvia is ready to fully support such step. Formally, countries at war are not allowed to join the Alliance. It is our opportunity to provide the future security guarantees during Vilnius Summit in July that Ukraine will need after the war,’ President Levits said.
The forthcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius this July was one of the topics of the meeting between heads of state. As President of Latvia pointed out, Vilnius Summit should give clear signal about reinforcement of Alliance’s eastern flank, which includes also the Baltics.
