Video interview

Q: Ambassador Liegis you're the Head of the Mission of Latvia to NATO, thank you for joining us today. What are your country's expectations as a future member of NATO?

Ambassador Liegis: Well first of all can I thank the Public Diplomacy Division for taking this initiative and inviting me to this interview and secondly, what I would like to say is to thank on behalf of Latvia the 19 current members of the Alliance for their historic decision that they took in Prague on the 21st of November 2002 in inviting Latvia and six other countries to join NATO.

And I think that essentially our expectations in receiving the invitation and becoming full members of the Alliance really relate to the basis on which NATO was established back in 1949 and it was established as we know as a collective defence organisation where the members of the organisation come to the assistance of each other and have this commitment to assist one another in the event of one of the member states of the Alliance being threatened.

And the fact was that Prague, the decision to invite and to enlarge the Alliance further was really from our perspective seen as being a very historical decision because of course it brought for us an end to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact that sealed our fate in the 1939 where we became subject to both Nazi and Soviet occupations and our freedom was denied us in a ruthless way for a period of over 50 years.

So essentially our expectation and our hope is that this history will really never be repeated and I think that this concept was well summed up by President Bush who left Prague for a visit to the Baltic States, he visited the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius and he said that the enemy of the Baltic States is now also the enemy of the United States and indeed one can carry on to say that the enemy of the Baltic States is also the enemy of the whole of the Alliance.

And so, the essential aspect of the Alliance coming to the assistance of a country in accordance with Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, we see that as a way of meeting our expectations because that's the very foundation of the Alliance and therefore this historical experience that we have had and the hope that Latvians in the future will able to rely on partners and will not be left to their own fate and be the pawn of larger countries that's dealt with our fate means that now Latvia has never been so secure in the whole of its history and so leading on from that is this expectation and this great optimism about our joining the Alliance.

Q: And what do you see Latvia bringing to the Organisation?

Ambassador Liegis: Well, of course, as well as receiving benefits from the organisation we perceive it as being very important that we can also make contributions to the Alliance and I think our experience since Latvia regained its independence in the early 1990s gives an illustration of the way in which we have enhanced stability and security in our region in the north-eastern region of Europe, around the Baltic Sea.

We regained our independence by peaceful means and since then we essentially have developed a form of cooperation amongst the three Baltic States of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania which I would say is very unique within the Alliance because we have developed not only in the political and economic sphere but perhaps most successfully in the military and defence sphere a very successful and close form of cooperation of pooling of our resources which means that this is a value that we can bring into... an added value that we bring into the Alliance.

Because these days where the Alliance is becoming larger it's apparent that defence resources do remain scarce and for us we felt that having built up our armed forces essentially from scratch that by co-operating with our Estonian and Lithuanian partners with of course the very important assistance from members of NATO and also countries in the region that are non-NATO members. This allowed us to develop a very effective form of cooperation which involve things like a Baltic Peacekeeping Battalion being developed, a Baltic ... air surveillance system being developed, a training school for deep-sea diving and also a Baltic Defence College based in Estonia and these joint projects really illustrate what we are able to bring into the Alliance.

And, as I said, the enhancement of regional stability and security I think is a value that we bring in.

Also the fact that we have gone through this process of being subjected to totalitarianism for half a century recovering our freedom through entirely peaceful means and then developing a democracy again essentially in a very peaceful manner I think that is an example that is valid in today's world where we're seeing other countries around the globe going through this process and our view certainly is that we have something very positive to offer concerning our experience in this field.

Q: And more specifically what do you see as your... or what will be your contribution be to the Alliance's new military structure, new missions?

Ambassador Liegis: Yes. Well of course we are joining a very important military alliance and for that reason politically Latvia made a decision several years ago to devote 2% of our GNP to defence and this concept has been committed to law.

The Parliament has passed a law committing this sum to defence for the immediate future. As a result of that this means that we are able to focus on developing not necessarily all of the full range of military capabilities that say some of the larger NATO countries develop because we feel that we will be able to make a contribution that is commensurate to the size of the country and the possibilities that a small country of approximately 2.5 million inhabitants can present. And in this regard I think our record also illustrates what we bring into the Alliance and militarily on the question of missions.

If we look back to 1995 already since then, so that's almost for a period of a decade, Latvia has been actively contributing to the NATO led peacekeeping operations in the Balkans, so we feel that it has been important for us to contribute militarily through the Baltic peacekeeping battalion in the Balkans for the restoration of stability in that region.

So we have had troops in SFOR and also KFOR and we will continue to do so during the course of this year.

We have also got a unit of military medics engaged in the ISAF operation in Afghanistan, the NATO operation that was indeed taken over by NATO in August of 2003 and so we're making a small contribution to Kabul Airport in this regard. At the same time Latvia has felt that it was important to become a member of the coalition in Iraq and as a result of that we have committed a contingent of over 100 soldiers to the peacekeeping missions in Iraq and they are placed both in the Polish multilateral contingent and also with the Americans and as we know NATO does have a supporting role for the Polish-led multilateral contingent in Iraq.

We have found for example, in Afghanistan that our specific knowledge, the specific knowledge of our troops, for example their knowledge of the Russian language, this has shown to be a very valuable asset both in the Balkans and now in Afghanistan and knowledge perhaps of the region from having been part of the Soviet system is also a value that we feel were able to offer.

At the same time it is quite clear that we have to focus on what is termed niche capabilities. In this regard I'd like to recall what previous SACEUR General Ralston said back in 2002. He was invited to give evidence to the Congress about proposals for the enlargement of the Alliance, before we had received the invitations, and he in that... in giving evidence he took Latvia as an example he said: 'Look Latvia does have world class mine clearance experts to offer the Alliance' and after reading this report I approached him personally because I was interested to follow this up and he said: 'well that's right you know our experience from seeing your troops on the ground in the Balkans led me to say that and it's what I believe that look Latvia has already has mine clearance experts that are of a world class level'.

So that shows that even though we are a small country we are able to make specific contributions. One of the other areas that we are focusing on as well as developing and continuing to develop these mine clearance experts is mine clearance at sea because of the fact that the Baltic Sea does have a lot of unexploded ordinance in it.

It means that we were able to develop once again with a lot of assistance from members of the Alliance a Baltic de-mining school, a diving school based in Liepaja on the coast of Latvia which therefore focuses on training divers to become experts in marine retrieval of mines and we're very pleased that there is state-of-the-art equipment there and that this facility is being used also for other partner countries and not just for the members of the Alliance.

So I think this gives an example of the way in which every nation within NATO has an opportunity to contribute something even though it may not be across the board.

At the same time we're very aware of the requirements of the Alliance, today's requirements in the changed security environment in which we live and Latvia, unlike some of the other invitee countries has not had to reduce the size of its armed forces on the contrary we have built them up from scratch which essentially means that we have been a bit more flexible and it also means that even though prior to receiving the invitation to join the Alliance we were focusing on the concept of total territorial defence which for us was important at the time.

Since actually receiving the invitation it seems clear to us that this concept is of diminishing importance again based on the fact that we are part of a larger collective defence organisation. So as a result of that we have changed also our defence planning to accommodate the new challenges posed by the Alliance from the threat of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and this in effect means that we have decided to move towards having a fully professional army in Latvia.

We're aiming in the next few years therefore to convert from a mixed non-professional and professional force to a fully professional force of something like 8,000 men. And we'll of course be focusing on these capabilities, on the usability of these forces, we anticipate that 60% of the landforces will therefore be available for deployability this year based on our engagement in the operations that I've mentioned; the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq.

We calculate the approximately eight percent of our land forces will be engaged in these operations. And we think that this is a good contribution, a valid contribution that we are making.

And what was interesting; I recently noticed an article in the French newspaper Le Monde which had a table of the European Union countries, and the size of their contributions, percentage according the GDP, to defence. And Latvia was actually in third position behind Greece and the United Kingdom, which shows that even as a small country, we're able to make a valid contribution to the missions, the new missions of NATO, and the military operations that are currently going on.

Of course we are looking at the way that we will be able to fit into the NATO Response Force, and in this respect again, the professionalization of our army will mean that we'll be looking at speedy deployability and sustainability of forces in the operation. Because, as we know, the Alliance itself is currently going through this transformation of its command structure.

And because we're a small country, we have small, relatively speaking, armed forces...we feel that we are really able, fairly quickly, to take on board the changes that the Alliance is going through, and adopt to them.

And this, perhaps, is in contrast to some of the other members of the Alliance who have the larger forces and who are more deeply rooted in routine ways and different ways of thinking, the Cold War stereotypes of large equipment. At the same time, perhaps, I should also mention this very important aspect of air defences, and air policing.

Regrettably, we are in a position of being slightly vulnerable, vis-à-vis the air policing of the air space over our country. Although once again, the three Baltic countries have agreed that the Baltic airspace should be, from the NATO perspective, treated as one joint airspace.

As we were integrating into the Alliance, as we were having discussions with the Alliance, we were informed, and reassured that there would be a collective solution to the question of this vulnerability of air policing that we have over our airspace. But it now seems that there is a lack of clarity about the extent to which the Alliance will be able to provide a collective solution for air policing.

And so, although we have developed a Baltic air surveillance system, we are still vulnerable on the question of air policing, and we certainly hope that a solution will be found, both in the short term and in the long term, which will ensure that the security level of the Alliance will not be lowered by the fact that in our particular area, there is this vulnerability of the airspace.

So I think that gives an illustration of both, again, what we are hoping and expecting, and what we will be able to contribute to the Alliance in the coming years.

Q: And as a future new ally, how do you see Latvia influencing NATO's political agenda?

Ambassador Liegis: Well of course, again, perhaps first of all we have to examine what that political agenda is. And I think part of the political agenda has been the enlargement itself, so we will be ensuring that the transition to enlargement will be successful, we will be making our contribution, and we will be making a positive contribution to, for example, the consensus aspect of Alliance decisions.

Related to that is of course this whole issue of the Transatlantic Link within NATO. And Latvia certainly feels that the Transatlantic Link is extremely important for the very survival of the Alliance. And that's why we emphasize the importance of that.

That is one of the reasons why we felt it was very important to support the United States on the question of Iraq, and as I mentioned earlier, we have committed troops to the operations in Iraq. And we have certainly expressed our concern about a negative development of the European Security and Defence Policy in a way that this might perhaps have adverse effects on the United States and reduce their commitment to being in Europe, which we regard as being fundamental to the Alliance.

At the same time, Latvia will be joining the European Union this year, as well as joining NATO. So we regard the success of European defence as being important, but not in competition to NATO. In co-operation with the Alliance, and ensuring that the United States are engaged, and the developments within the European Union defence policy take place in an open way.

And certainly, we expressed our concerns about any endeavours to develop some sort of mutual defence within the European Union, we were very much against that, of course, since the collapse of the IGC within the European Union, this issue has now come off the agenda.

So we're also satisfied by the way in which the question of the development of EU-NATO relations was resolved in December of 2003, so that there will be a small operation cell within the European Union, with NATO staff attending that, and likewise the Berlin Plus arrangements will continue to operate.

At the same time, we're also looking forward to becoming engaged in the NATO-Russia Council, because we consider that NATO's relations with its partners is very important. This is a dynamic process, of course, because once we become full members of the Alliance, there will be more members of the Alliance than there are partners. So the balance will be shifting.

And as we know, the most important partnerships that currently exist within NATO are those with Russia, those with Ukraine, and those with the Mediterranean countries. Because of our geographical location and our history, we have a very special situation vis-à-vis Russia, it's a very important neighbouring country of ours.

And that's why when the NATO-Russia Council was founded with the summit meeting in Rome, we said that this was very good for the Alliance, it was very for Russia, but it was also very good for Latvia. Because we feel that it's very important that there should be close and good co-operation between NATO and between Russia, and so we look forward very much to making a positive contribution, a constructive contribution to these relations, based, I think, on frankness, openness, but also being firm with our partners where it's necessary to be firm and open with them.

And to be clear about what NATO's position is within these relations; and to assert what NATO wants out of, say, the NATO-Russia partnership, the NATO-Ukrainian partnership. So I think those, essentially, are some of the political issues that are facing the Alliance.

Of course, the other main one is dealing with this ongoing new security situation that has developed since the end of the Cold War, which was then the situation of a slightly different NATO than that that has developed today with the overriding threat from terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, where, as I've already mentioned, we are playing a certain role.

Thank you very much.

Q: Thank you very much.