 met in the Latvian capital of Riga and agreed to continue){kind=link}
Foreign Ministers of Baltic States and Nordic countries (NB8) met in the Latvian capital of Riga and agreed to continue supporting Ukraine until it is victorious in its fight against the Russian invasion.
At a joint press conference following the meeting, Prime Minister and acting Foreign Minister of Latvia, Krišjānis Kariņš, said that the talks focused on coordinating and strengthening support for Ukraine. One of the issues was how to spread the message on the international stage, including countries outside of Europe, where people may not understand that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an imperialistic war, Kariņš said.
“Russia will have to ultimately be made to answer for all its crimes committed in Ukraine. I think an adequate solution would be a criminal tribunal for the highest-ranking representatives of the Russian government. This is inevitable and it will happen because they must answer for what they have done,” the Latvian PM said.
Other topics on the agenda included energy security and energy independence.
“We have successfully made ourselves independent from Russian fuels, but there is a lot to be done still,” he added, and pointed out that infrastructure must be built, that will not only ensure that energy is securely supplied, but also that its prices are competitive.
“We will continue to support Ukraine. It is obvious, that Ukraine will win this war,” Kariņš concluded.
He was seconded by other NB8 diplomats.
Lithuanian FM Gabrielius Landsbergis stressed the importance of Ukraine’s NATO and EU integration.
“All of those require our attention and I’m sure that they will be also those victories that Ukraine will be able to achieve. And we are determined to stay with Ukraine until its victory,” the Lithuanian diplomat said.
Other diplomats spoke of the support, both military and financial, their countries pledged to send to Kyiv. Sweden’s FM Tobias Billström also referred to the importance of the membership of all Nordic countries and Baltic States in NATO, which he sees as necessary for strengthening regional security.
Sweden is currently the only country in the group that remains outside of the alliance, its NATO bid being blocked by Turkey.
The NB8 group is made up of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden Norway, Denmark, and Iceland.
Source: TVP World