“Russia is not provoked by strength, but Russia is provoked by weakness” Egils Levits, President of Latvia
President of Latvia Egils Levits said Latvia would push for additional troops at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit next month in Madrid, in coordination with other states on the alliance’s eastern flank that are calling for bolstering the region’s defenses in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.
“Russia is not provoked by strength, but Russia is provoked by weakness,” Levits said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. “So we are looking also for NATO troop presence at a brigade scale,” he said, “a level that can deter Russia.”
Vladimir Putin’s invasion order has triggered a surge in military spending across the region, including the deployment of NATO military equipment and troops across areas near the border with Russia. The leaders of eastern European countries known as the Bucharest Nine will meet ahead of the June NATO summit to coordinate action.
