If Lithuania or Poland propose to initiate the procedure of Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, Latvia will support it, President Egils Levits told reporters today after a meeting with Lithuanian President Gitan Nauseda and Estonian President Alar Karis.
The first person of the country pointed out that during the meeting, the presidents talked a lot about the situation on the border with Belarus. In addition, the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, joined the conversation.
“We agreed that the border must be protected and it will be protected. Our border is strong. The President of Poland told us how and by what means the Polish-Belarusian border is being protected. Nauseda spoke about protecting the Lithuanian-Belarusian border. “We are talking about Latvia ‘s readiness to defend its border. We have the necessary forces and we are coordinating them so that the border is protected and defended,” said Levits.
He also emphasized that this was not a refugee crisis as it was in 2015. According to the President, this is a hybrid attack on the European Union (EU) and Poland, Latvia and Lithuania by Belarus and Russia. Levits emphasized that what was happening should be seen completely differently, as the political and defense dimensions were different.
“We talked about the need for the EU and NATO to have a clear position on this. Speaking of the EU, I can say that the EU supports us politically and there is no disagreement between the European Commission and our countries. We believe that the EU should also play an effective role in border management. construction on Poland, Lithuania, possibly also on Latvia ‘s border with Belarus, because it is the EU’ s external border, which we defend, “the President stressed to journalists.
As part of an extensive hybrid attack on the regime of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, attempts have been made in recent months to send thousands of illegal immigrants from Belarus to Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, most of whom have arrived in Belarus as tourists from Iraq.
However, since last Monday, there have been massive attempts by Belarusians to violently break into Polish territory.
The EU has accused the Minsk regime of seeking to avenge support for the Belarusian opposition and of sanctions against Belarus in response to last year’s violent crackdown on protests.
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