Latvia in the 21st Century

Issue Brief
Vol. 1 - No. 6 - October 8, 1999

Latvia in the 21^st Century

On September 24 Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga spoke at the Endowment about Latvian foreign policy and social integration in a multi-ethnic state. Since assuming the presidency in July 1999, her foreign policy agenda has focused on gaining membership for Latvia in the European Union and NATO. We provide below a summary of her remarks and the question and answer period.

"The Baltics must become a member of the European Union if Europe is to be free and democratic in the twenty-first century, as it should have been 100 years ago," said President Vike-Freiberga. Latvia is unequivocally committed to democracy and free markets, she said, and strives to resume its "rightful place on the continent." Latvia's contribution to Europe should not be denied because of its years behind the Iron Curtain, she warned.

She argued that Latvian membership in NATO is "natural and logical," and would guarantee security in Europe. "Latvia wants to re-join the world from which it was forcibly and brutally removed" and supports a model of NATO expansion that would include the countries emerging from communism, she said. She cautioned against driving wedges in Europe by admitting some states and not others, arguing that Latvia should not be excluded from NATO just because it is a geographic neighbor to Russia. Denying the Baltic states membership would be "a disservice to the Europe of the next century" and would hamper the development of the region, she said.

Vike-Freiberga underscored Latvia's commitment to meet all the requirements set before it for NATO admission. One step her country has taken is to increase defense spending by 35 percent, despite the Russian economic crisis, so that by the year 2003 defense spending will reach two percent of GNP. Even if Latvia is not promised accession in the near future, it will make improvements in its defense forces, she stressed.

Questioned about the contribution Latvia could make to NATO and its defensibility in the event it was attacked, President Vike-Freiberga responded that Latvia could provide key installations for surveillance of the European air space and strengthen the European shore of the Baltics.

Asked about the possibility of Estonia's admission to NATO before the other Baltic states, she maintained that Estonia's and Latvia's objective defense readiness is equal, and postulated that Estonia is viewed as the favorite because of its public relations efforts. She criticized the prevailing view that NATO should "try" one Baltic country before admitting the others, warning that such an approach could drive a wedge between the Baltic states. At the same time, however, she characterized relations among the Baltic nations as collaborative, not competitive, and stressed that all three are committed to identical goals, aims, and values. She argued that NATO should recognize that the defense capabilities of the Baltic states individually are small and said that the three countries should be considered for membership together.

Social Integration

President Vike-Freiberga said that those who question Latvia's readiness for admission to the EU and NATO often point to what they consider insufficient social integration of Latvia's multi-ethnic state. Among the legacies of World War Two and the Cold War is what she called an "unnatural demographic profile," where the proportion of ethnic Latvians declined to reach a low point of 49 percent today. Ethnic Russians comprise 30 percent, and other ethnicities 15 percent, of Latvia's current population.

Other factors she listed that contributed to the declining Latvian population were the fleeing of refugees to the United States and Canada [such as her parents] after the Soviet takeover, mass deportations to Siberia, and the forced industrialization that imported workers to Latvia from all over the Soviet Union. The "heritage of occupation," she said, is even more pronounced in Latvia than it is in Estonia and Lithuania (which has a Russian population of 9 percent).

Latvia strives to become a more unified state, where citizens consider themselves Latvian regardless of their ethnicity, she said. She pointed out that Americans have a sense of citizenship that Latvia wishes to emulate. Requiring citizens to know the Latvian language and a rudimentary knowledge of the country's history is not an infringement on civil rights, she argued, pointing out that such citizenship laws are common in Europe and the United States. Reports about the hardships Russian-speakers face because of these requirements are false, she said, and are propagated by "people who still have dreams of Russian domination."

Despite the reports of state discrimination against Russians in Latvia, there have been no incidents of inter-ethnic violence and the country maintains a "policy of zero tolerance of bigotry," she said. In fact, she contended that an increasing number of Russians supports the program for social integration, attends Latvian language programs, and seeks out sources of information other than Russian television and newspapers.

-Summary by Elizabeth Reisch

Return to the Russian and Eurasian Program Home Page