bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

The Washington Post

Russia on Wednesday started a live-fire military exercise in the Baltic Sea, just outside Nato territorial waters, in a move a top Latvian defence official called a “show of force”.
The barrage came just a day after Latvia’s president and other Baltic leaders met at the White House with US President Donald Trump.
The three-day missile test forced a partial shutdown of Latvian civilian airspace and was the first time Russia has tested live munitions in Latvia’s exclusive economic zone, a stretch of international waters just outside Latvia’s territory in the Baltic Sea. 

Latvian defence officials said they were carefully monitoring the situation.
“What concerns us is that it’s the first time when they’ve actually exercised so close to our borders,” said Janis Garisons, the state secretary of the Latvian Defence Ministry. 
“We regard it as a show of force, nothing else. There have not been any kinds of provocative actions, but there are still two days to come.”
Trump rebukes Putin over his ‘invincible’ nukes
The presidents of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia all met Trump at the White House on Tuesday, a long-planned visit that came as the countries celebrated their 100th anniversaries of independence. 
During the second world war, the Baltics were occupied by the Soviet Union and did not regain sovereignty until 1991, and they have long felt themselves on the front line of conflict with Russia.

Sweden and Poland also received notifications from the Russian Defence Ministry about live-fire exercises in the Baltic Sea, and Sweden shut down a portion of its airspace during the three-day Russian operation. The notifications were sent last week.
Baltic leaders have expressed concern about Trump’s reluctance to criticise Russian President Vladimir Putin for a variety of violations of international norms, including most recently, the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England. 
But they have embraced Trump’s robust military spending increases and say that US policy toward Russia appears as hawkish as in previous presidential administrations.

Garisons said he was cautious about making a direct link between the Russian exercises and the White House meeting.
“You can link it to many things,” he said, including the expulsions last week of Russian diplomats from most European countries in response to the Salisbury nerve agent poisoning. 
Nato’s top military commander, US Army General Curtis Scaparrotti, is expected to visit Latvia on Thursday. Scaparrotti is also the commander of US military forces in Europe.

Trump said on Tuesday that he appreciated that the Baltic countries were all on track to meet the Nato goal of spending at least 2 per cent of their GDP on defence by the end of 2018, something he has slammed other nations for failing to achieve.
“I especially want to commend the Baltic nations on meeting their defence spending obligations this year for Nato, unlike some of the other countries, frankly, that haven’t met their obligations, but they will,” he said before the meeting.

The White House meeting – a chance the tiny Baltic nations typically receive only once during each US presidency – drew top leaders of each country, meaning that they are unusually short-staffed at home during the Russian exercises. 
Along with the president of each country, the foreign and defence ministers and their top advisers also went to Washington. 


Russia’s Kyiv strike payback for Ukrainian ATACMS attack, defence ministry says

Why time is right to press Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions

Russia, Iran to boost military and trade ties in ‘real breakthrough’ pact

In Kyiv, UK’s Keir Starmer vows to put Ukraine in ‘strongest position’ against Russia

Russia

Russia tests missiles in the Baltic Sea a day after Baltic leaders meet Trump

The Russian navy corvette Steregushchy, destroyer Nastoichivy and frigate Admiral Gorshkov are anchored in a bay of the Russian fleet base in Baltiysk, in the Kaliningrad region of Russia, on July 19, 2015. Baltic nations are closely monitoring the Russian navy’s live-fire exercises in the Baltic Sea on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Russian navy coastal minesweepers and anti-submarine warfare corvettes are anchored in a bay of the Russian fleet base in Baltiysk in Kaliningrad region, Russia, July 19, 2015. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo

epa06635897 The Danish Royal Navy Iver Huitfeldt-class frigate HDMS Niels Juel (F363) of NATO's Standing Maritime Group One (SNMG1) in Riga, Latvia, 29 March 2018. The Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1) conducts several days of naval exercises in the Baltic Sea this week. EPA-EFE/Toms Kalnins

FILE PHOTO: Vessels are seen during the joint war games Zapad-2013 (West-2013), attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, at the Khmelevka range on Russia's Baltic Sea in the Kaliningrad Region, September 26, 2013. REUTERS/Alexei Druzhinin/RIA Novosti/Kremlin/File Photo ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

(FILES) This file photo taken on August 30, 2017 shows an US Air Force F-15C „Eagle" jet next to flags of the US and the NATO during an exercise of NATO's Baltic air-policing mission at the Siauliai Air Base in Siauliai, Lithuania. Baltic state leaders will ask the United States to send more troops and bolster air defences on NATO's eastern flank to deter Russia as they meet President Donald Trump on Tuesday, officials said. / AFP PHOTO / Petras Malukas

President Donald Trump, right, speaks during a news conference with, from left, Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

News

World

United States & Canada

Europe

Russia & Central Asia

The five-day military exercise, just outside Nato territorial waters, was called ‘a show of force’ by a Latvian defence official, and caused the shutdown of Latvian civilian airspace


Nato

US-Russia relations