Latvia should reconsider its foreign policy concept, whose cornerstone has been the United States as the country’s main security guarantor, former foreign and defence minister and current director of the think tank Northern Europe Policy Centre, Artis Pabriks (Latvia’s Development), told the LETA news agency in an interview.
At the same time, Pabriks stressed that this does not mean Latvia should turn away from the United States, which has long been a friend, and that there is still hope Washington may change its stance toward Europe in a more positive direction. “However, as a small country, we cannot afford to live in illusions, dreams or assumptions,” Pabriks said.
According to him, in Germany only 20% of the population trusts US military security guarantees. “Trust is melting like snow in spring. I would bet that if we conducted a similar survey in Latvian society,
the level of trust in the United States would be much lower than it was three years ago,”
Pabriks suggested.
In his view, this means Latvia must look for alternatives while continuing to work with “our friends in the US,” noting that there is a wide range of politicians in the US Congress. “But we cannot rely on the assumption that, in a critical situation, they will have sufficient political weight to make a decision to help us,” Pabriks concluded.
Therefore, he argued, within the existing framework of transatlantic cooperation Latvia must also seek other points of support. “Most importantly, cooperation among the Baltic Sea states, where there is sufficiently strong economic and military potential,” Pabriks emphasised.