“NATO should ramp up its ground forces and hold more drills in the Baltic region [to defend against a possible aggression by Russia], Delfi internet portal quoted Rinkevics as saying Thursday.
“We need more soldiers, more drills and greater visibility. What we also need now is to make it clear to everyone that NATO will stay on as long as it takes and will do everything that needs to be done,” the minister added.
Latvia is scheduled in October and November to host Arrcade Fusion 2015, an exercise staged by the headquarters of the NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), the Latvian defense ministry said on September 29.
The military exercise, which has been held annually since the ARRC's formation in in the early 1990s, will test the headquarters' "ability to control simulated troop formations within a challenging and dynamic fictional security or humanitarian crisis," the ARRC said on its official website.
