Latvia should reconsider the concept of its foreign policy, which is based on the USA as the main guarantor of security, stated former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense and now Director of the Northern Europe Policy Centre, Artis Pabriks, in an interview with the LETA agency.
Pabriks added that this does not mean Latvia should turn away from the USA, which is "our old friend, and we hope that they will change their position towards Europe for the better."
"At the same time, being a small country, we cannot afford to live in illusions, dreams, and assumptions," Pabriks said.
According to him, only 20% of the population in Germany trusts the security guarantees provided by the USA.
"Trust is melting away like snow in spring. I can bet that if we conduct a similar survey of the Latvian population, the level of trust in the USA will be much lower than it was three years ago," Pabriks said.
In his opinion, this means that Latvia needs to seek alternatives while simultaneously working with "our friends in the USA," as there are very different policies in the US Congress.
"But we cannot count on them having enough political weight to decide to help us in a critical situation," Pabriks said.
Therefore, in his opinion, Latvia needs to look for other points of support within the existing transatlantic cooperation. "The main one is cooperation among the countries in the Baltic Sea region, where there is sufficient economic and military power," Pabriks said.
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