Latvia hopes that France will review its cooperation with Russia on supply of Mistral helicopter carriers due to the situation in Ukraine, Latvia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkevics has said.
“Latvia strongly disapproves of this. We’ve stated this since 2010
when we received the information that the contract will be signed,” he
said at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday, July 16.
The minister added that he raised the issue at a meeting with his French counterpart in May 2014.
“He assured me that the final decision would be made in October. The
position of Latvia is the following: we believe that in these conditions
when, according to our information and information from other countries
and international organizations, modern weapons are being supplied to
separatists in Luhansk and Donetsk regions, we all, as the EU, have to
introduce sanctions against Russia on supplies of weapons, all types of
military equipment, including these carriers,” he said.
He said that this was an issue of European security, including all the countries of the Baltic and Black Sea regions.
“We hope that our partners will understand the whole seriousness of
the situation and will revise the decision. We believe that in
principle, the sale of high-tech military solutions to Russia at this
stage is not in line with the interests of security and common sense,”
the minister said.
In turn, Iceland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson supported the position of his Latvian counterpart.
“How can sanctions against Russia be imposed and such weapons be sold
at the same time? I think that these two things are incompatible,” he
said.
