Underscoring the need for the NATO Washington Summit to clearly demonstrate strong unity and commitment, with all Allies willing to shoulder their fair share of responsibility for collective security, on Thursday, 20 June, the Saeima adopted a statement calling on the parliaments of NATO member states to support Ukraine’s official application for NATO membership. In the statement, the Saeima urges the governments of NATO member states to support extending an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO at the summit to be held in Washington, D.C., in July this year.

In the statement, the Saeima categorically condemns Russia’s unprovoked military aggression and large-scale invasion of Ukraine, carried out with the support and involvement of Belarus.

According to the statement, Ukraine has the right to self-defence and, like all countries, the right to choose which international organisations, supranational formations, or military alliances to join.

Members of the Latvian Parliament highlighted Ukraine’s significant contribution to Euro-Atlantic security. Ukraine is directly protecting that security, and its NATO membership would substantially strengthen the Alliance, particularly in enhancing all future defence and deterrence capabilities on NATO’s eastern flank.

MPs referred to the unwavering support of the Latvian people for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders of 1991, underlining Latvia’s steadfast refusal to recognise the annexation of Ukrainian territories, including the Crimean Peninsula, illegally occupied through aggression, and our continuously firm support for Ukraine’s deeper integration into the Euro-Atlantic area.

The statement stresses that Russia currently poses the main and most direct threat to Allied security, to the peace and stability of the Euro-Atlantic area, and presents systemic challenges and threats to Euro-Atlantic interests and values.

According to the statement, NATO’s doors remain open to all European democracies willing and able to assume the responsibilities and obligations of NATO membership. Russia has no veto over NATO enlargement or any other related issues.

The Republic of Latvia will continue providing extensive and comprehensive support for Ukraine at the government, municipal, civil society, and NGO initiative levels to strengthen its resilience against Russian aggression, and reaffirms its commitment to support Ukraine in its reconstruction, in particular in the Chernihiv region.

In the statement, the Saeima also strongly commits to supporting international efforts to hold accountable all perpetrators of war crimes and other grave international crimes committed in relation to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and supports the establishment of an ad hoc international tribunal for the prosecution of the persons guilty of the crime of aggression.

The statement urges NATO to prepare a long-term strategy and proactive measures for the containment of Russia to prevent its threats in all dimensions, to actively defend democracy and the rules-based international order, and to increase the resilience of the Alliance and Allies against Russia’s aggressive, destabilising political, military, and hybrid actions undermining Allied security.

Saeima Press Service