The celebrations were held in Riga’s Freedom Square near the Freedom Monument, and attended by the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee,
Admiral Rob Bauer, and the Minister of Defense of Latvia,
Andris Sprūds.
Present at the event were delegations of Latvia’s NATO allies’ armed forces. There was also a flyover performed by jets of NATO’s
Baltic Air Policing mission tasked with boosting the defensive capabilities of the Baltic states.
The mission is performed rotationally by air forces of various NATO countries. The current rotation, stationed in Lielvārde in Latvia, has been performed by the German Air Force since March 1. The previous rotation was performed by air forces of Poland, France, and Belgium.
Additionally, the day was marked by an exhibition of military equipment of Latvia and allied countries, as well as the opening of exhibitions documenting Latvia’s accession process into the alliance and its participation in NATO’s operations and joint exercises.
Challenges ahead
The Chair of the Alliance’s Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer said there was no indication of an imminent attack from Russia on the Alliance’s Eastern flank but nevertheless, Russia had “larger ambitions than Ukraine.”
“And therefore
the alliance as a whole needs to be ‘readier’ because we agreed to see Russia as a threat, like the terrorist organizations,” Admiral Bauer said. “And now all the work that we do is to make sure that we can deter and defend against those two threats.”
Addressing air force pilots,
Putin said the day prior, that Russia has no designs on any NATO country and will not attack Poland, the Baltic states, or the Czech Republic but that if the West does supply F-16 fighters to Ukraine then they will be shot down by Russian forces.
Bauer said criticisms from former U.S. President and election candidate Donald Trump were not aimed at NATO but rather at countries that didn’t “pay enough” into their country’s defense, failing to meet the 2% of GDP spent on the defense target, which goal had been agreed on all the way back in 2014.
“His critique that European nations and Canada need to do more for their own defense was, I think, correct,” he added.
Latvia, along with Baltic neighbors Lithuania and Estonia, other countries celebrating their 20 years in the alliance are Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovenia.
