Latvia wants permanent U.S. troops, foreign minister tells Blinken

RIGA (Reuters) – Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics on Monday called for a permanent presence of U.S. troops in Latvia following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Looking at the most recent developments we would be very happy about the permanent presence of U.S. forces here in Latvia,” Rinkevics told a joint news conference in Riga with his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken.

“We have no illusions about Putin’s Russia anymore, we don’t really see any good reason to assume Russia might change its policy,” Rinkevics said.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis, additional reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, editing by Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche)