We are by far the strongest alliance in history and the unity is much stronger than President Putin expected. Such a statement made the NATO Secretary General at the joint press-conference with the Prime Minister of Latvia, Krišjānis Kariņš, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, the Minister of Defence of Canada, Anita Anand and the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez

“President Putin’s war on Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe. It has shaken the international order. And it continues to take a devastating toll on the Ukrainian people.

But Putin seriously underestimated Ukraine. And he seriously underestimated the strength and unity of NATO, and of our friends and partners around the world.

We have imposed unprecedented costs on Russia. We have stepped up our support for Ukraine, helping to uphold its right to self-defence. And we have implemented historic reinforcements of NATO’s collective defence. With thousands more troops reinforcing the eastern part of our Alliance. Including here in Latvia.

I strongly welcome that Allies including Canada, Spain, and the United States are deploying hundreds more troops to our multinational presence here at the Adazi base in Latvia.

As long as we stand together, North America and Europe in NATO, we are all safe because we are by far the strongest alliance in history. And the unity is much stronger than President Putin expected. He wants less NATO, he"s getting more NATO. He wanted to divide us, he is getting a more united Alliance. We are here to preserve peace, prevent war, and that"s the reason why we are increasing our defensive deterrence presence in Latvia and in the rest of the Eastern part of the Alliance”, - said Jens Stoltenberg.