RIGA - By announcing that Latvia might host the 2006 NATO summit, recently appointed Defense Minister Atis Slakteris has done the country a grave disservice, oppositionist MPs said this week.
According to former Defense Minister Girts Valdis Kristovskis and former Interior Minister Maris Gulbis, Latvia's chances for hosting the defense summit are minimal now that Slakteris has "spilled the beans."
"Slakteris, with his populist action, light-mindedly spilling the news about talks with NATO about organization of the summit, has reduced the chance to a nil," said Gublis.
He said that even if NATO agreed to hold the summit in Latvia, now it will be much more difficult to protect participants against possible terrorist attacks.
According to Gulbis, "information about Latvia hosting such important event could have been made public only after NATO leadership had confirmed that the summit would indeed take place in Latvia."
On April 2, when Latvia was celebrating its official admission to NATO, Slakteris, speaking from the Parliament rostrum, said that Latvia could become the venue of the 2006 NATO summit thanks to the esteemed international authority held by President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
The question of hosting the summit was considered as classified by the Cabinet.
Kristovskis also said that Slakteris, a member of the People's Party, made the news public too early and had thus created problems for organizing the NATO summit.
"Security always is a cause for headache at such events," he said. The earlier the venue is announced, the more time ill-wishers have to plan any possible counter-moves, agreed the former defense minister.
Slakteris rejected the criticism over premature disclosure, saying he had done the right thing and made the information public in due time.
"There were two ways to achieve the goal - the NATO summit in Latvia - and I chose the public way," the defense minister said.
Slakteris, who was in Lithuania last week to inspect the four fighter plans that are patrolling Baltic airspace, said it would not be good to conceal such information from the public and release it at the last moment.
"This simply is not the way to do things, and the public in the world is always informed about forums of such grand scale in good time," said Slakteris, adding that the NATO summit is one of the most influential political forums in the world. "If the summit takes place here, it would be an enormous chance to show Riga and Latvia to the world," he said.
