We will have statements from our
officials and then time for media
is given to the prime minister. Dear
dear representatives of the media, I was
very happy to welcome you today host you
in Latia and our house of the
government. We really appreciate very
clearly representatives of the
government and also representatives of
our society that you have decided to
visit the front
border frontline states.
Those countries who are neighboring
aggressive state Russia are the first
countries who face this unjustice and
cruelty which is taking place in
Ukraine. We see it as a sign of
solidarity to the entire society of
Latia. We are guarding
the border of the EU and values every
day in Latia. We are people of value. We
have no illusions about Russia. And
again, the most recent attacks by Moscow
to civil objects in Ukraine, killing
several children. Again proves this. We
support
to reach a fair and stable peace in
Ukraine. And I want to thank all our
partners including
the president of European Commission of
all the work that you have contributed
by participating in numerous discussions
in order to promote facilitate peace in
Ukraine. Unfortunately, we do not see
any signs currently showing that Russia
would be willing to end the war and we
can still say that unfortunately we know
from our history that Moscow understands
only force. That's why we are
strengthening our resilience and our
capacity. We want to weaken Russia. We
are investing into our defense
capabilities. We are reinforcing our
external borders and I would like to
highlight once again this is not only
Latan border the border of the EU and
NATO we are developing in Latia military
industry and definitely in all these
processes the European Union plays an
important role and that's why we visited
one of the drone producers in Latin
robotics because this company is a very
good example showing How by attracting
EU funding, it's possible to develop new
innovative products also developing
latous competitiveness
and also in the area of military
production and industry attaining
another level. I would like to thank
president of the European Commission who
is all for for very strong support to
North Korea.
We together as colleagues are providing
support to Ukraine.
Ukraine's place is within the EU
and we are also we are supporting
strengthening of sanctions and applying
import tariffs to Russia and Bellarus.
Also under your leadership, the European
Commission has been a trusted partner
for Latia and for Ukraine and the war by
Russia has influenced Latia's economy
especially in the eastern regions
because investors are slightly taking
their time freezing the assets waiting
for the war to end when it will be much
safer to invest into our eastern region
I know that you also have always
supported reinforcing competitiveness of
EU and we support you in this. Stronger
Europe means also stronger Latia. Latia
is already dedicated several hundred
millions for reinforcing our eastern
border and improving the security
situation. We discussed also new plan
for economic development of eastern
region in
also dedicating more than 100 million
euros and these efforts are not only
national. It's very important to see
those efforts appreciated in the EU. And
so we discuss all those matters with the
president of the European Commission.
But in in the next multi-
multi-year budget of the EU, we will
have to speak about
the external borders of the EU and Latan
eastern regions need specific support
and we are happy that we see
understanding in shown by our colleagues
from the European Commission and the
president is visiting not only Latia but
several but several
several
frontline countries by this showing also
to our society that on the European
Commission level these matters are dealt
with. I trust in the understanding and
support of the president and the
European Commission and in the context
of the multi-year budget the proposals
by the EU and also for safe instruments
are very important. This is of critical
importance also for rain rail build
project and for developing of military
mobility. Once again my heartful thanks
to you for being here today for your
understanding of this region for
supporting EU eastern border and in
general that you care for the stolen
Ukrainian children and that you want to
see Europe becoming stronger. Now give
the floor to the president of European.
>> It's very good to be here with you today
and thank you very much for the visit of
origin robotics.
It was visible that if you may call it
the future of collective capacity to
defer and to defend is being designed
right here and I was very happy to hear
with European funds. It was impressive
to see uh what uh they are how
innovative this company is and how fast
this company is growing. So I really
want to congratulate uh Latvia. You are
on your way to become a true drone and
anti- drone powerhouse and this is
impressive to see. Your expertise will
certainly help shape Europe's security
but also NATO's defense strategies for
the years to come. And that's why I am
proud to start my eastern border travel
right here in Latvia. And I want to be
very clear. We know that Europe is only
safe if the eastern border is safe. And
therefore the eastern border defense
line is one of the most important
flagships that has my full support. It's
impressive the work that you are doing
there and count on me to be by your
side. Dear Eva, the risks your country
and the other Baltic states warned us
about unfortunately have materialized.
Russia's brutal war against Ukraine is
now in its fourth year.
Putin is a predator.
Putin's proxies have been targeting our
societies for years with hybrid attacks
with cyber attacks.
The weaponizing of migrants is another
example. And this is something
unfortunately that Latia knows only too
well. You have a bitter experience in
all these fields. So as we strengthen
Ukraine's defense, we must also take
greater responsibility for our own
defense.
And this is the logic of the 800 billion
euro defense industrial plan that we
have launched together. And part of this
plan is the joint procurement instrument
that we call safe.
SAFE is a joint procurement instrument
of 150 billion euros and with safe we
are delivering the capabilities Europe
needs most. So as I said it's a joint
procurement.
It means air and missile defense. It
means for example looking into cyber
defense and of course drones.
I'm very glad that 19 member states
including Latia of course have now
requested support through safe
and I'm pleased to announce that we have
reached full subscription of the whole
150 billion euros.
Many member states have indicated that
they will also use it to support the
Ukrainian defense industry.
So that is a true European success.
Dear Eva, Latvia is already among NATO's
top defense spenders relative to GDP.
Congratulations to that. In addition,
you have asked for budget flexibility to
boost the defense spending under the
so-called national escape clause. 15
member states have done the same. So
together we are investing more. We are
investing together and we're investing
European. So Europe is on the right
track. There's a lot of hard work ahead
of us, but we are on the right track.
Now, we have three tasks to work on.
First, in October,
we will take stock at the European
Council together um with our so-called
road map for readiness 2030. So we're
going to look into the capability gaps
and how to close them. The second aim is
by 2030 to have significantly
strengthened our defense capabilities
and to have closed the defense gaps that
we have. And the third in parallel task
is we will contribute to make sure that
Ukraine has ironclad security
guarantees.
This is also the reason why in the new
European budget that we just have
proposed, we have a five-fold increase
in defense spending as a proposal. We
have a tenfold increase in military
mobility
because we think it's high time for
readiness and we have tripled the
proposal for migration and border
strengthening.
So, thank you very much for inviting me
here today and thank you for the
excellent cooperation.
And now the time has come. Now the time
has come for the questions.
Each of the our officials will take one
question.
Before you ask the question, please
introduce yourself and also indicate the
media outlet that you are representing.
I lost in English. Good afternoon. Uh,
President, Prime Minister Agina Molen of
Latin Public Television, LTV, you
mentioned that Lat is on the way to
become a drone powerhouse and um, you
started you posted in a Twitter on X
that uh, visiting the EU frontline
states.
Now, how ready do you think are we as
European countries um to deter military
aggression right now and while we are
still very much reliant on the United
States security umbrella? What would be
the most serious capacities shortages
you think that need to be addressed
quickly? Yeah. So, um, first of all, it
is very important to have the right
sense of urgency. I I Latia has the
right sense of urgency, but the whole of
the European Union needs to understand
that it is important to work on
readiness, immediate readiness. Um, and
for that you need different elements.
One an element is financial flexibility,
financial leeway. And this is something
the commission has the me enabled the
member states through two elements. The
one is the national escape clause so
that nationally there's more flexibility
for the member states to invest in
defense in their own defense. But also
important is the second leg which is
safe the joint procurement because we
have European common defense necessities
for example in uh common European air
shield or if you look at cyber defense
or if you look at uh the whole space uh
topics these are common European uh
projects uh that uh we have to develop
together. The second element is we have
to be very clear on what are the gaps
but also what are the timelines and the
milestones that we have to meet. So we
have to be only what you can measure um
you can deliver. uh so it's not only
that we need a plan but we need also
really to measure the timelines and the
targets for that we will deliver the
readiness 2030 plan to the European
Council in October so that we have a
common plan what the needs in the
different member states are and how we
get there
then and this goes in parallel we have
to strengthen the Ukrainian armed forces
I've said that Ukraine has to be like a
steel porcupine, undigestible for
potential invaders and Ukraine has a
highly trained and battlefield
experienced armed forces
um for security guarantees. This would
be the first line of defense, but this
needs substantial and sustainable
financing. So also a task where we have
to look into how can we make sure that
Ukraine has a welle equipped
well-trained well- paid armed forces
over time. And then the the fourth and
last element I want to mention is the
mid and long-term planning. That is the
new budget that we have proposed where I
said that the amounts to be invested the
proposal to invest them in defense in
military mobility but also in
strengthening the borders um have been
uh u extremely increased five times 10
times partially from what we had.
And the last question
is a question to the prime minister. You
mentioned you said understands only
force.
We see the efforts to stop the war in
Ukraine. Do you think that the principle
through force is used to force Russia to
stop murdering Ukraine, Ukrainians and
destroying Ukraine? Thank you for your
Also referring to what the president of
the commission just said regarding the
means Latia in all has invested in all
these areas. We have used both this
escape clause helping ourselves and
helping Ukraine. We have applied for
safe instrument. We still are waiting
for approval. There are things that
Latia needs nationally but also
cooperating other countries and also to
help Ukraine. We understand that we are
going to have initiatives which we
cannot implement on our own to help
Europe and to help Ukraine.
Well, here we need involvement of
several countries.
That's why we are in this poor
initiative where the United States are
ready to supply military
technologies technique that Ukraine
needs. We are ready to participate and
our agreement is before we see peace of
Ukraine. We are going to
supply to Ukraine
military technique. We have provided
and because we need financial support to
Ukraine in order for it to exist
socially because they investing their
budget for military needs. But they need
even more support
and of course greater financing. These
are the challenges that you member
states have and NATO countries have and
also the coalition
will of the willing.
We are thinking about the next
packages of sanctions. These are on
their way unless we restrict Russia. If
we allow Russia to earn and we have to
thank also United States
who are now targeting countries
who have been very favorable towards
Russia for example India. This will
perhaps force Russia to come back to
negotiations.
It was easy for them to evade sanctions
because of the actions taken by India
and North Korea and other countries
and we we saw no openness towards
negotiations but now the EU and the
coalition of the willing. We have
supported Ukraine. We have restricted
Russia. We have forced to sit down at
the table of negotiations
and we have also establish joint form of
negotiations with our transatlantic
partners, coalitions of the willing and
I believe that we see very good
coordination and we are showing force.
Thank you. And with this we conclude our
press conference.
>> Thank you for that.
Thank you.
Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat. Heat.