Closing eastern land border would be a joint government decision, weighing security and economic aspects - defense minister

RIGA - Closing the eastern land border would be a joint government decision, which would be based on security and economic considerations, Defense Minister Andris Spruds (Progressives) told LETA,

The minister said in the interview that the Defense Ministry is first and foremost responsible for the closure of airspace along the country's eastern border, and last week the ministry decided to leave the closure in place.

The minister added that if the government decides to close the eastern land border, the Defense Ministry would be ready to take concrete action. Spruds noted that this had already been the case when Latvia closed its border crossing points, where the armed forces deployed all the necessary infrastructure. "We have also prepared everything necessary at the existing border crossing points. The plan for the reinforcement of border protection specifies how we prepare the infrastructure to make any mobility impossible," the minister said.

The border closure would be a joint government decision, taking into account both security and economic considerations, he said. At the same time, it is important to coordinate such issues with allies - first of all with Lithuania and Estonia, he stressed.

"If we jointly come to this, then I do not exclude that we can and do evaluate such a decision. I cannot say at the moment that this will happen tomorrow, but such a matter is under evaluation and coordination," the minister said.

As reported, the Saeima National Security Committee recently considered the National Alliance's proposal to close Latvia's land border with Russia and Belarus during the Zapad military exercise. The parliamentary committee rejected the proposal.

The committee indicated that the matter had been discussed in the National Security Council, which ordered the government in cooperation with competent authorities to consider restrictions on crossing Latvia's eastern border.