"Let's be clear - we don't want a war with Russia"

Austin said this at a press conference in Riga after a meeting with Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks.
"To be clear: we do not seek confrontation with Russia and do not pose a threat to it," he said. At the same time, the head of the Pentagon said that Washington's position is that an attack on one of its NATO allies "means an attack on everyone".
Earlier, the Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, commenting on the statement of the US Department of Defense on the allocation of another billion dollars in military aid to Kyiv, said that in this way the US authorities are "adding fuel to the fire of the Ukrainian crisis".
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said today that his country will increase the number of military exercises in Latvia.
At a joint conference with his Latvian colleague Artis Pabriks, he said that the US brigades that are currently in Romania and other parts of Europe will probably participate in the permanent rotations of troops stationed in the Baltic, but that they can also send soldiers from the USA. Austin is the first US Secretary of Defense to visit Latvia in three decades.
Latvian Minister Pabriks said that his country needs additional financial assistance from the US in order to buy new military equipment and strengthen airspace and coastal defenses.