Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau arrives on his third visit to Latvia

On 10 July 2023 Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau arrived on his third visit to Latvia. Prime Minister Trudeau had a meeting with the President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs and the Prime Minster of Latvia Krišjānis Kariņš. Prime Minister Trudeau is the first foreign Head of Government to meet with the newly elected President of Latvia.

During the meeting President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs thanked Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau for Canada’s military presence in Latvia and expressed Latvia's readiness to continue working on the expansion of the presence and the establishment of a combat-capable brigade.

President Rinkēvičs and Prime Minister Trudeau also discussed the priorities of the forthcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius, as well as the situation in Russia and Belarus. President Rinkēvičs expressed his conviction that the NATO Summit in Vilnius should make progress on the Alliance's new deterrence and defence plans and reiterated Latvia's goal to have a permanent deployment of air and missile defence assets in the Baltic states. President Rinkēvičs also expressed his gratitude for Canada's significant assistance to Ukraine.

Prime Minister Trudeau and the Prime Minister of Latvia Krišjānis Kariņš visited Camp Ādaži, home to NATO’s Canada-led enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) Battle Group. Prime Minister Trudeau reiterated Canada’s commitment to Euro-Atlantic security, particularly as it relates to Canada’s leadership of eFP Latvia as Framework Nation. He outlined Canada’s plans to increase its personnel up to 2200 and scale up the battle group to brigade size, in collaboration with Allies. He also announced Canada’s intention to allocate 2,6 billion CAD for equipment, ammunition and arms as a contribution to eFP Latvia. Prime Minister Trudeau expressed his appreciation for Latvia’s continued hospitality towards Canadian Armed Forces personnel.

Prime Minister Trudeau and Prime Minister Kariņš reiterated their commitment to continue standing with the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Russia’s war of aggression.

The two leaders welcomed the continued deepening of the Canada-Latvia relationship and underscored the warm people-to-people ties that unite our countries.