Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze Talks NATO, Russia/Ukraine

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:07)
NATO leaders are gathered in Ankara, Turkey for a summit with wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, top of mind. Bloomberg's Oliver Crook is on site for a conversation with the Latvian Foreign Minister.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:18)
Oli.

**Oliver Crook** (0:20)
Yeah, that's right, Vani. We're all here in Ankara, Turkey, awaiting the arrival of President Trump, that sort of one-year anniversary since that last NATO meeting where they get that 5% commitment NATO spent on defense. That, of course, was the big topic last year. The question is, how far down the path are we now? We're joined now by Baiba Braze. She is the Latvian Foreign Minister. Thank you so much for speaking to us on the sidelines of the meeting. I want to take stock of where we are one year from that historic NATO meeting. What positive story does NATO have to tell now to President Trump as he arrives here?

**Baiba Braze** (0:49)
Well, we agreed the political declaration very fast, so it will be published tomorrow, so I can't release what's in there. But all the essentials, we perceive Russia commitment for Ukraine, NATO's own commitment, forces, defense spending, everything is in there, so very good. We have NATO's Defense Forum taking place here with multi-billion commitments for defense industry improvements, for interoperability, joint production, but also increasing the, for example, battle-decisive munitions, but also the innovation package, drone commitment, so that's the other part. It's not enough just to have the funding.
You actually have to deliver capabilities.

**Oliver Crook** (1:31)
Of course. And of course, there's also still been this sort of thing that's hanging over NATO. We heard from Pete Hegseth, who visited recently, saying that there's going to be another review over the next six months of the American troop posture. How much does that concern you? Do you think that the Europeans are moving fast enough in order to backfill some of those absences from the United States?

**Baiba Braze** (1:48)
Well, we do that together with the US. And it's not like US just wants to get out or something. They have really vested interests in maintaining their presence in Europe. I mean, it's not only about economic and trade relationships. It's the joint defense and security interests that we have geopolitically.
So very clearly, that's a commitment, and that's how we are going to do it together. Like we did to the interim one, we will do that also. Yes, Europeans have to invest more. They have to perform. They have to do more. And it's not just words. It's actually what matters, how it's delivered.

**Oliver Crook** (2:22)
And we've had some reporting also that the United States may be examining basically who is spending the money, how much those who are actually hitting those targets, and maybe rewarding those. And obviously, as a Baltic nation, where defense and security is one of your top priorities, could you see yourself benefiting from some of the sort of now tiered system that the United States is suggesting, potentially, for example, getting more troops to Latvia, for example?

**Baiba Braze** (2:43)
I cannot comment on particulars of those arguments, because what we do is we follow what we decided. We decided Russia, and we all know that. Russia is a threat to all of us, very clearly.
It's a country, nuclear-armed country, which decided militarily to attack a peaceful country. So it used military means to achieve political objectives So, we are in the middle of subjugating Ukraine. They are not succeeding, they won't succeed. But that means that it's a total change in everything. And that's why it's not only defense spending, but the actual deployability of troops, capabilities, learning from the battlefields between Ukraine and Russia, especially on the unmanned systems, electronic warfare, communications, satellites, everything around that. So there is a lot we have to do. And this is where NATO is best to do that.

**Oliver Crook** (3:40)
And there seems to have been a real shift in momentum on the battlefield in Ukraine over the last few months. I think that that is a conversation and a message that Zelensky will be making to President Trump while he's here. Obviously, things are getting harder for the Russians on the economic front, a lot of strain there. So what is your appraisal of the Russian position now? And how much of a threat is it to Vladimir Putin domestically?

**Baiba Braze** (4:00)
Russia cannot achieve its political objectives through military means. So whether it's the occupation of whole of Ukraine or even Donbass, anything else, Ukraine's technological advancements, the ability to put pressure on Russia through these long-term sanctions, as they call, which means on military objects within Russia, but also on the energy infrastructure, has created such pressure on Russia that it will have to compromise. There is no other way. It will have to settle the war through political means, not through military means.