Page 52 - Slv News Today

Latvia needs a permanent U.S. military presence to deter Russia and wants to boost its defences with U.S. Patriot missiles, Defence Minister Artis Pabriks said on Monday as NATO's chief visited allied troops in the Baltic country.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Sunday that the NATO military alliance needed to adjust its stance towards Belarus, whose military, he said, was becoming more integrated with Russian armed forces.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Latvia and Sweden next week to attend Transatlantic and European security meetings and hold bilateral talks, the State Department said on Friday.

All options are on the table in how to respond to Russia's "large and unusual" troop buildup near Ukraine's border, and the NATO alliance will decide on the next move following consultations next week, the State Department's top U.S. diplomat for European affairs said on Friday.

The European Union must not back down from imposing sanctions on Belarus state airline Belavia after several countries in the bloc expressed doubts over the measure, Estonia's prime minister said on Wednesday, warning that it could weaken the EU's hand.

The European Union must make it clear to Russia that there would be a high price to pay if it acted against Ukraine, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told Reuters on Wednesday, urging the bloc to quickly agree on how to deter Moscow.

Taiwan's leadership will host a group of Lithuanian lawmakers next week amid a deepening spat between Beijing and Vilnius about the Baltic state's decision to allow the Chinese-claimed island to open a de facto embassy.

Association of Financial Mutuals boss Martin Shaw slammed LV for a raft of ‘shortcomings’ in its approach to keeping members informed.

The European Commission aims to blacklist and punish transport companies involved in human trafficking, it said in a statement on Tuesday, after almost 7,700 migrants arrived in the bloc via Belarus this year.

The thousands of migrants on the European Union's eastern borders with Belarus is an attempt by the Minsk regime to destabilise the EU, rather than a migration crisis, the head of the executive European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said.