There are currently no threats in Latvia that would require the dismantling of railway tracks near the eastern border, but restricting rail infrastructure is not a “silver bullet” against a potential aggressor, Ministry of Defence parliamentary secretary Liene Gātere said on Tuesday during a meeting of the Saeima Internal Security Subcommittee.
The subcommittee had invited representatives of several stakeholders to discuss whether railway tracks near the eastern border should be dismantled. The first part of the meeting was open to the public, while the remainder was held behind closed doors.
In the open session, Gātere explained that the defence sector’s objective in establishing the Baltic Defence Line and implementing counter-mobility plans is to stop and defeat a potential enemy at the border or as close to it as possible. While public discussion has recently focused on dismantling railway tracks, she stressed that railways are only one element among many, noting that threats — and counter-mobility measures — may also exist in the air, on land, at sea, and in cyberspace.
“Railway tracks are not the main element, they are not a panacea or a silver bullet — but they are one element,” Gātere said.
She added that
counter-mobility plans already include mechanisms for deactivating railway tracks if a specific threat emerges.
“In the event of a concrete threat, we are ready to deactivate certain sections of railway,” she said, emphasising that while this is the defence sector’s vision, any restriction of railway traffic would require a joint government decision.
At present, there are no direct threats that would make dismantling tracks mandatory from the defence sector’s perspective, Gātere said, but under certain circumstances Latvia would be ready to deactivate or potentially dismantle specific sections.
Colonel Andris Rieksts of the National Armed Forces Joint Staff said that the military assesses mobility corridors primarily focused on main roads, but railways are also part of the evaluation. “The worst-case scenario is surprise, because then time is very limited. When assessing measures that can be taken on railways, the greatest time advantage is achieved when the railway is not there,” Rieksts said.
Gātere added that
the Armed Forces’ assessments take into account the time required to deactivate railways
and how this aligns with NATO and Baltic regional plans. She did not disclose publicly how much time such deactivation would take.
Uldis Mikuts, Director of the First Bilateral Relations Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told lawmakers that Latvia has no international legal obligations requiring it to maintain transit infrastructure. However, he stressed the importance of avoiding discriminatory approaches — excluding one country from transit while allowing others to continue.
According to Mikuts, regional coordination among the Baltic states is a key issue. He said available information suggests that neither Estonia nor Lithuania currently has a strong appetite for closing transit routes, making coordination essential before Latvia takes national decisions. He added that the Foreign Ministry is actively working with Central Asian countries, making logistics and transport a priority, as Latvia is interested in attracting cargo flows to its ports.
Patrick Markēvičs, Director of the Railway Department at the Ministry of Transport, told lawmakers that public discussions about possible rail dismantling have already prompted sharp reactions from parts of the transit business, for whom rail infrastructure is critically important.
While
acknowledging that “talking about money may not be appropriate” in a strategic security context,
Markēvičs said the economic potential of railway infrastructure remains extremely significant. He also noted that the United States plans to lift sanctions on Belarusian potash fertilisers and warned against a scenario in which Latvia is later asked why all potash cargo flows ended up in Klaipėda instead.
Markēvičs estimated that in the Latgale region, roughly one in three families is linked to the railway sector, which provides livelihoods for many households.
Subcommittee chair Edvīns Šnore said after the meeting that the situation surrounding potential rail dismantling appears somewhat chaotic. He added that there are “forces” in Latvia interested in continued economic cooperation with Russia, and that lobbying intensifies whenever dismantling rail infrastructure is discussed.
As previously reported, the Saeima rejected a proposal by the opposition National Alliance to dismantle railway infrastructure along the Latvian-Russian border. Several ministries and security institutions have been tasked with preparing an assessment by the end of the year on the potential impact of dismantling railway tracks along the Russian border. The presidents of the Baltic states have also stressed that any such decision must be taken jointly.
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