Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks announced on Tuesday July 5 the restoration of compulsory military service amid growing tensions with neighboring Russia and war in Ukraine.
“Latvia's current military system has reached its limits.
At the same time, we have no reason to believe that Russia will change its behavior
,” he told reporters.
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Latvia had dropped out of compulsory service after joining NATO.
Since 2007, the army of this Baltic country member of the European Union has been made up of professional soldiers and volunteers from the National Guard, who serve in the infantry part-time on weekends.
The country of less than two million inhabitants, bordering Belarus and Russia, currently has only 7,500 soldiers in active service and members of the National Guard, supported by 1,500 NATO soldiers.
According to Artis Pabriks, compulsory military service, which will only concern men, will be reinstated in 2023. Gatis Priede, a member of the National Guard, hailed the decision, the "
best news"
which he said should have been taken at the moment of the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014.
"It is the right thing to do: to train more reservists for our army and for the overall force of NATO, which is still sorely lacking in the region of northern Europe and the Baltic
,” he told AFP.
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The Latvian Defense Minister also announced a project to build a military base near the town of Jekabpils (southeast), which would be closer to the Russian border than the current Adazi base.
