'France importing Russian gas sends the wrong message': Latvian FM Braže

Talking Europe

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8d ago 12:28

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Multiple European countries have reported incursions into their airspace by presumed Russian drones in recent weeks and months. That is a particular concern to so-called "frontline states" of the EU and NATO. We speak to Latvia's Foreign Minister Baiba Braže about the EU's drone readiness, Russia sanctions, hybrid warfare and the issue of migrant pushbacks.

Braže says her country is "at the forefront" of drone policy in the EU. "We have a very high scientific and tech base, and it is easy to do business in Latvia. So tech companies have really been quite successful," she explains. "We have huge military ranges where they can do live bombing and electronic warfare, and we also have a superb relationship with the Ukrainian military, so lots of our stuff gets tested on the battlefront in Ukraine," she goes on. Braže emphasises that in Latvia there is a "permissibility to fail environment", and says she would welcome EU Commission leadership to create more of that at the European level.

"What we need is single-source, small procurement, letting them (the companies) fail, then letting them advance rapidly, taking on scientific developments and discoveries, and just being out there," Braže elaborates. "We have said to the Commission leadership, and also to French ministers, that we need that permissibility to fail, as well as speed and rapid adoption."

Continuing on the drone issue, Braže takes a big-picture approach. "This is not just about the border," she says. "We also saw in the airports in Copenhagen or other places that you need to identify and detect the drones early on, because you want to understand what that is as early as possible. If you just use some radar or something, it might look like a Delta plane, not like a drone."

We come to the EU's 19th package of sanctions on Russia, which targeted Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for the first time. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were the first EU states to stop using Russian gas. Braže is critical of countries that are continuing those imports. "We haven't gone back to any Russian [oil and gas]. And we advise the same for all the companies in Europe," Braže says. "The fact that there's quite a bit of Russian LNG imports in France, I don't think is the right message to Russia. I don't think it's right to give billions of euros from French taxpayers' money or French companies' incomes to the Russian budget from which they wage the war."

We also ask Braže about reported migrant pushbacks at the Latvia-Belarus border; something that the European Court of Human Rights has held hearings on.

"It became very clear what was happening on the side of Belarus; that they were gathering people flown in from different parts of the world," Braže states. "They were gathering them in the groups, bringing them to the border, and then pushing them across the border. And that was very much through a Belarus-KGB organised effort. So, I'm sorry, this is not any more an issue of asylum and migration. This is organised activity with the objective of violating our border – which is a border of the EU and NATO."

But don't the migrants have rights under international humanitarian law, even if they are being used as a political weapon? "They have the right to ask for asylum in Belarus", Braže replies. "I mean, they are all in Belarus territory. They have to ask for asylum there, and it will have to be granted. Belarus should be able to do that. It's considered quite a safe country."

Programme prepared by Agnès Le Cossec, Oihana Almandoz et Isabelle Romero

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