On Wednesday, in the Latvian capital of Riga, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda met with his Latvian counterpart Egils Levits. The main topics of this visit are security, support for Ukraine and issues of bilateral relations. The President and his wife are on an official visit to Latvia.
“Welcome, dear President Andrzej Duda and Agata Kornhauser-Duda on your official visit to Latvia! In this crucial time for Europe, we will discuss security, our tireless support for Ukraine and issues of bilateral relations,”
President of Latvia Egils Levits wrote on Twitter.
“The main part of the discussion concerned the security of our countries, here in Central Europe, how we build this security and activities in connection with the NATO summit in Vilnius – what we should strive for before and during the summit,”
Andrzej Duda said during a joint conference with the Latvian leader.
Support for Ukraine
He noted that with the Latvian President, he discussed strengthening the security of both countries and citizens, including infrastructure. “The war in Ukraine shows how important it is to have immediate access to modern military infrastructure in order to stop the enemy,” the President said, adding that action within NATO is primarily preventive.
Andrzej Duda also stressed that he strongly joins the Latvian President’s initiative to establish a special International Criminal Court for justice to be served, as was needed for war crimes committed by Russians in Ukraine.
“As lawyers also talking with experts we know perfectly well that there exists a certain loophole in international law, that does not allow Russian war criminals to be put before the International Criminal Court,”
Duda told a joint press conference with Levits.
Expansion of Rail Baltica
The president conveyed that the talks also covered bilateral economic cooperation, including infrastructure development. He mentioned, among other things, the further expansion of Rail Baltica and plans to build high-speed rail. As he pointed out, the idea is that in the future there will be a connection between the Baltic States and Czech Prague and further south. He also pointed to close cooperation between Poland and Latvia, as well as within the framework of the Three Seas Initiative.
Referring to the upcoming Three Seas Summit in Romania, he expressed hope for even stronger cooperation, which, he pointed out, is obvious because of what is happening today in Ukraine and how Moscow’s aggressiveness has increased.