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Latvia could host nuclear weapons if NATO chooses to deploy them, president says

Source: Delfi

Nuclear weapons could be stationed in Latvia if NATO decides to do so and the need arises, Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs said.

“Our laws pose no legal obstacles to stationing nuclear weapons in Latvia,” he said.

No specific talks on stationing nuclear weapons in Latvia are currently underway, however, Rinkēvičs said.

On September 29, Britain proposed extending its nuclear umbrella to the Baltic and Nordic countries. The proposal calls for an additional deterrent that would operate independently of NATO. British nuclear submarines would play a key role in providing that deterrent.

In mid-September, Lithuania’s parliament backed a bill to lift the constitutional ban on stationing nuclear weapons in the country. Amid debate over the bill, the Kremlin said Lithuania would be “in the crosshairs” of Russian nuclear weapons if it hosted a nuclear arsenal.

It emerged on September 30 that Russia had sent NATO a document warning that it could use nuclear weapons if there were an attempt to “isolate the Kaliningrad region from the rest of the country.”

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