A large-scale military exercise The Decisive Point of the National Armed Forces (NAF) of Latvia has started near the Belarusian border. About three thousand soldiers and land guards (militias) will take part in the maneuvers.
“I asked to announce military exercises in the Latgale region so that our Belarusian colleagues, if you can call them that, would know that it was not just that. About 3,000 representatives of the Latvian National Armed Forces will take part in the exercise. The training will last about a month”, the Minister of Defense of the Republic Artis Pabriks told Latvian television.
According to him, the likelihood that new groups of migrants may be sent to the border with Latvia is allegedly growing, so Riga decided to conduct large-scale maneuvers on the border with Belarus. In addition, Pabriks noted that Latvia can use the 4th article of NATO in connection with the migration crisis.
Article 4 implies consultations of the members of the North Atlantic Alliance if, in the opinion of one of the parties, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the members of the organization is threatened.
“I cannot exclude the possibility that we can apply with such a request to consider the need for consultations on the 4th article. At the moment, I don’t think this is so, but we discussed it – it was on the agenda from the very beginning of the crisis. It is clear that the initiator will be the country on which the main hybrid strike will be inflicted, but in general, if the situation continues to deteriorate and the need for such consultations arises, we will do it together”, the Minister of Defense of Latvia emphasized.