Latvia welcomes NATO troops

A welcoming ceremony was held at a military base outside Riga on Monday for the Canada-led multinational NATO battle group which was deployed to Latvia as part of NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence in the Baltic states and Poland.


Greeting the troops at the Adazi base was NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis and Defense Minister Raimonds Bergmanis, as well as Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan.

NATO is deploying its battalion-size battle groups in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland, in accordance with a decision made last year at the Alliance's summit in Warsaw.

The battle group that will be stationed in Latvia includes 1,138 troops from Canada, which is the battle group's lead nation.

Russia has repeatedly expressed strong opposition over NATO's troop deployment in the Baltic states.
  [globaltimes.cn/Xinhua]
20/6/17