Latvia plans to raise its defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2028, its president, Edgars Rinkēvičs, said on Tuesday amid fears of aggression by Russia, the country’s giant eastern neighbor.
Speaking in Warsaw following talks with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, Rinkēvičs said he hoped NATO nations would agree a new defense expenditure guideline of 3.5% – up from the current 2% – but that some countries would need to spend more.
“This is the level we need to talk about,” he was quoted by Poland’s state news agency PAP as saying, adding: “Those countries directly threatened have to think about higher defense spending.”
Riga’s 2025 defense budget stands at 3.45% of GDP, according to the Latvian Ministry of Defense.
Rinkēvičs described Poland as an ally and strategic partner of his country.
Regional security was high on the agenda of the two presidents’ talks in Warsaw, with the focus on NATO’s eastern flank as well as international tensions and the prospects for peace in Ukraine.
Rinkēvičs is on a two-day visit to Poland. On Monday, the third anniversary of the war’s outbreak, he attended the ‘Support Ukraine’ summit in Kyiv.
Both presidents expressed hope for a durable peace in Ukraine.
“The most important thing is to stop people dying, for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine to end and for a lasting peace to be achieved that will also provide security to other countries, including to us on NATO’s eastern flank,” Duda said.
The Latvian president said that “Ukraine must remain a strong state,” adding that this was important for the common interests of Europe.
“The peace must be just and lasting,” he said. “Of course, that’s easy to say but will be hard to achieve.”
Duda also said he hoped U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to start peace talks would lead to direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.
