Marking a year since the founding of the Drone Coalition for Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense, in cooperation with Riga Technical University, will organize the event in Rīga on May 28.
Riga Technical University will be involved in organizing the summit, and has been allocated 248,505 euros for the event.
“The Drone Summit will discuss the coalition’s achievements and lessons learned, as well as discuss future goals, focusing on the challenges of global security and modern warfare. The Summit will bring together ministers, leading experts, industry representatives and scientists from the Drone Coalition countries, creating a common platform for discussions and future decisions,” said the Latvian Defense Ministry.
“Latvia confirms its leadership in the drone coalition by organizing a summit that simultaneously strengthens support for Ukraine, promotes the development of the drone industry, business cooperation and innovation. This initiative emphasizes our determination and capabilities to provide Ukraine with much-needed unmanned aerial vehicles, while also developing Latvia’s defense industry,” said Minister of Defense Andris Sprūds.
Latvia initiated and, together with the United Kingdom, leads an international drone coalition. Since the coalition’s founding in 2024, Latvia has sent approximately 5,000 combat drones of various types and capabilities to Ukraine.
Latvia has developed a drone testing ground, where both national industry representatives and industry representatives from the Drone Coalition member states have the opportunity to conduct regular testing of their technology in order to work on technology development in a quality manner. The Latvian drone testing ground is also used to ensure the testing of drones for the Drone Coalition’s joint procurement.
The total support of all drone coalition member states for Ukraine’s drone capabilities reached 1.8 billion euros in 2024. Latvia allocated 20 million euros for the needs of the drone coalition last year and plans to allocate the same amount this year.
An international fund with more than 80 million euros in funding raised in 2024 operates within the coalition, which also purchases drones for Ukraine from Latvian companies. Latvia invested 5 million in the fund. At the moment, the fund has prepared the delivery of 30,000 combat drones of various capacities to Ukraine, of which 12,000 drones will be supplied by Latvian manufacturers. The second procurement is in the testing stage. A third procurement will be announced in February.
The coalition now includes 17 member states: Latvia, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Australia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Estonia, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany and Sweden.
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