“Our defense funding was 0.67%. We had to reach 2%,” Kristovskis shares his memories of the time when Latvia joined NATO

“Everything is based on finance. And it was extremely difficult to convince us that 2% of GDP is achievable,” Saeima member Ęirts Valdis Kristovskis shares his memories of Latvia joining NATO in the TV24 program “Dienas personība”.

Most read

Passengers are pissed off! The expected “relatively small” increase in train ticket prices turns out to be quite impressive

Opinion

Karl Streip: Who could have thought of doing something so crazy on Easter?

Opinion

Armands Puče: A decision that will make manganese ore kissers mad. Also passive…

Read other posts

He remembers that sometimes the Prime Ministers were very skeptical because, as heads of government, they also had demands from other sectors, which were unacceptable for funding.

“Our defense funding was 0.67%. It was necessary to reach 2%. If we hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t have been able to take concrete action.”

Kristovskis explains that it would be difficult to take concrete measures in the fields of military education, equipment, armaments. It would be difficult to create our own structure according to NATO’s vision.

“We could not train our NATO language. The language of NATO means that we have to be able to work with our potential partners. If we didn’t have money, we wouldn’t be able to send our units on peacekeeping missions. And also in those challenging operations that were in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Kristovskis explains that it would not have been possible without financial resources. “We had to convince political circles, Saeima and politicians.”

Themes