President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs does not believe the State Border Guard should be entrusted to the Ministry of Defence.
The president said this during a press-conference after meeting with Prime Minister Evika Siliņa. A meeting of the National Security Council will be organised to discuss action in the event of possible drone-related security threats.
When asked whether the improvement of the system would require institutional rearrangements, such as the inclusion of the State Border Guard in the system of the Ministry of Defence, the president emphasized that the reports from relevant officials will be presented to the parties at the meeting of the National Security Council. However, it is already clear that the cooperation between the National Armed Forces needs to be significantly improved, said the president.
“I don’t think the State Border Guard should answer to the Ministry of Defence. We had a system like that in the past, but there were certain considerations as to why protection of the border was entrusted to the Ministry of the Interior. […] If you look at NATO members, I can’t actually name any country where the State Border Guard or Border Police would be subordinate to the defence system,” said Rinkēvičs.
Rinkēvičs said cooperation and information exchange need improving, but changing institutional subordination after the drone incident is unlikely to help with anything, the president said.
As previously reported, on the 7th of September a Russian Shahed-type drone crashed in Rezekne. Latvian National Armed Forces, when asked how such an incident was possible, claimed they were monitoring the situation. However, no decision was made to send NATO interceptors or shoot it down. This was met with a public backlash. The drone crashed and its warhead, which did not detonate upon the drone crashing against the ground, was deactivated later.
After this incident, Latvian Ministry of Defence commenced consultations with NATO allies that had experienced similar incidents in the past.
An investigation has commenced. The first conclusions are promised this month.