The president of Latvia said not to forget about Taiwan, in an interview on the implications of the world perceiving Europe and the US as failing to provide support to Ukraine.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said that Russia is planning a long war in Ukraine and has a message for countries wavering on continuing military support to Kyiv: Keep supplying arms or the Ukrainians will lose and Russia will have a green light for threatening others in the future.
If the world sees that Europe and the US are failing to provide support to Ukraine, “then I think that is going to be increasing pressure on Israel,” Rinkevics said.
Photo: AP
“Also, I think that Iran is going to be more assertive,” he said. “Let’s also not forget about the whole Asia region, and let’s not forget about Taiwan.”
“It is important to actually fight for international peace, and peace in Europe, because if we stop Russia in Ukraine, then Russia is not going to be able to challenge other countries,” Rinkevics said.
In July, Rinkevics was sworn in as president of Latvia, which was part of the Soviet Union until its breakup in August 1991. The Baltic nation, with a population of 1.9 million, in 2004 joined the EU and NATO, holding a key point on their eastern flank with its 214km border with Russia.
Rinkevics, who was Latvia’s minister of foreign affairs for 13 years before being elected president, said it is important for the West to support Ukraine and Israel against attacks on “our values” and the international order.
He also stressed the need to push for humanitarian pauses in fighting in the Gaza Strip to provide assistance to Palestinian civilians, whose death toll in Israel’s retaliation for the Hamas attack has topped 11,000, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said.
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