On April 8, 2024, Mr Kaspars Āboliņš, the Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, participated remotely in the international conference “European Union negotiations 2024: The European Union as a safe home in the modern geopolitical landscape ', which was organized in cooperation between the Latvian Foreign Policy Institute and the Representative Office of the European Commission in Riga and the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia.
At the conference participants discussed the current situation due to the new geopolitical situation of the European Union.
Kaspars Āboliņš, taking part in the discussion panel on strengthening European borders, drew attention to the importance of a united and coordinated action by Latvia and the European Union as a whole, overcoming the challenges posed by hybrid attacks or migration instrumentalisation by hostile regimes on the Latvian border. It is important that there is a common understanding of this issue in the European Union, so that the possibilities of resisting and preventing hybrid attacks of this kind are much greater.
The agreement at European Union level on the migration pact is also a very important issue, which has shown that the Member States of the European Union are ready to cooperate and address the challenges posed by the migration crisis and the instrumentalisation of migrants.
The instrumentalisation of migrants, or the use of refugees for political purposes, is a very sensitive and complex issue because it manipulates people's exits and despair. At the same time, Latvia, as a Member State of the European Union, has a duty to take care of the national security of its country and to safeguard the security of the external border, which is also the external border of the entire European Union, while observing international agreements and human rights norms.
Kaspars Āboliņš thanked the organizers of the conference for updating and explaining important geopolitical issues to the society, as well as thanked the European Commission and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) for the allocated resources and large support, helping to ensure effective guarding of the common border between Latvia and the European Union in a joint team.
