Artis Pabriks

The Baltic states and Poland have pleaded with the US to speed up arms deliveries and expand the presence of US troops in their countries, the newspaper reported.
According to the newspaper, the Russian military operation in Ukraine has caused fear in Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that they will be next to come under attack.

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".

Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks called on the partners to increase support for Ukraine so that they do not have to defend Latvia later, the Delfi portal reported.

"Ukraine is now fighting our war - and if it loses, the next one will come and we will pay the price for it," Pabriks said. He added that the allies did not understand this.

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Feb. 16 attended NATO meetings in Brussels amid a crisis between the Alliance and Russia over the latter's military build-up in eastern Ukraine. Akar also had a bilateral meeting with his Greek counterpart after a fresh debate between the two neighbors over the status of the Aegean islands.