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“Today we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, and we are fully committed to prevent this brutal history from ever repeating. Europe is witnessing ongoing Russia’s warfare in Ukraine which has already taken more than 6,000 lives. Therefore, we have to learn from the past – we should not leave Ukraine fighting alone. If we hesitate too long, we risk having much bigger conflict on our hands eventually,” said Ināra Mūrniece, Speaker of the Saeima, on Thursday, 7 May, during her working visit to Poland where she participated in a discussion on the legacy and lessons learned from World War II in the context of European integration organised by the European Solidarity Centre.
Speaker Mūrniece asked participants whether we have helped Ukraine enough in this complicated situation. “We have expressed our support to Ukraine’s right to determine its own destiny; however, besides the EU’s political and financial assistance, it is essential for the international community to remain focussed on this country,” said the Speaker with concern. Ināra Mūrniece recalled the historian Timothy Snyder and the events of September 1939 when, despite declaring the war on Germany, Western allies – France and Britain - did not launch any military action to stop the aggressor from invading Poland.
“We have a remarkably aggressive neighbour, with its ongoing military operations in Ukraine, bullying its neighbours with increasing intensity. We have to be deeply worried about that. Unfortunately, Russia will not change its ways, and we have to be ready to develop new forms of action in the new security environment,” said Speaker Mūrniece, emphasising the scarcity of European defence budgets. “The NATO Wales Summit pledged to address this problem, and Latvia has committed itself to increase the defence budget to 2% of GDP by 2018,” informed the Speaker of the Saeima.
Concurrently, Ināra Mūrniece indicated that certain progress has already been made. “We should continue improving strategic communication with our Trans-Atlantic partners to counter Russia’s sophisticated propaganda machine. We need to win the daily battle for the news headlines. We should respond much quicker to disinformation campaigns.” Likewise, the Speaker noted that Latvia welcomes the increased presence of allied military forces on our land, emphasising that the presence of NATO allies on the Baltic soil should be not only maintained but also increased.
Speaker Mūrniece said that there is still time to improve the protection of our values and our people. Our ability to be united and stand together will be the key in this process.
On 7 May, Ināra Mūrniece, Speaker of the Saeima, is in Gdansk where she takes part in events commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Participants of these events are the highest officials from around 20 states, including Bronisław Komorowski, President of Poland; Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia; Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of Lithuania; Rosen Plevneliev, President of Bulgaria; Nicos Anastasiades, President of Cyprus; Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic; Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine; Klaus Iohannis, President of Romania; Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, President of Croatia; as well as Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the UN, and Donald Tusk, President of the European Council.
During the visit, the Speaker of the Saeima will take part in candle-lighting ceremony at the monument of the fallen shipyard workers of 1970.
Saeima Press Service