"With the threats not subsiding, defence cooperation between Latvia and Lithuania is important like never before. We must combine our efforts of strengthening national defence of our countries and common defence of the Alliance in our region through development of regional cooperation and also by rendering assistance to Ukraine," Minister of National Defence Juozas Olekas said at the meeting.
Minister J.Olekas underscored that the areas calling for particular attention while enhancing defence cooperation of the Baltic states were development of a joint mid-range air-defence system, countering hybrid threats, and stepping up cooperation with Poland and the Nordic countries. The Ministers also agreed at the bilateral meeting on focussing more on the coordination of their countries' forces on the borderline and on developing simpler border crossing procedures for allied forces.
While discussing assistance to Ukraine Minister J.Olekas maintained that training the country's armed forces was a crucial support for Ukraine's military reform and invited Latvia to go in with the joint international efforts by sending military instructors to Ukraine. Lithuania is contributing military instructors together with the United States. Minister J.Olekas also proposed for his Latvian counterpart to consider sending military psychologists to Ukraine in a trilateral Baltic format and inviting the Nordic countries to join in.
The Ministers also agreed to combine effort to ensure that there is agreement at the upcoming NATO Summit in Warsaw concerning the long-term current and additional measures of deterrence in the Baltic region, i.e. additional presence of allied forces, pre-positioning of NATO equipment in the region, sustainment of the strengthened NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission, etc.
The Ministers also discussed closer cooperation in pooling military training capabilities of the countries so as to improve training conditions for both, national and rotating allied forces.
