Riga secured a record-breaking budget for militarisation in 2026—over €2 billion. This was announced by the Minister of Defence, Andris Spruds.
“The government has reviewed next year’s budget—for the first time, it is planned to invest more than €2 billion euros, or 4.91% of GDP, in defence,” Spruds declared.
The Defence Minister asserted that Latvian officials are ready to “account for every euro” spent on militarisation.
“We are developing our capabilities—we will continue to develop both human resources and specific capabilities specifically in relation to armaments. We also approach this responsibly, because we believe that there must be stakeholders in our national economy, there must be stakeholders in our industry. And, finally, as I have already mentioned, openness is very important. We are ready to account for every cent of this euro, for every euro, and we are also ready to clearly demonstrate our position,” he proclaimed.
It was quite expected that Riga would allocate extreme funds to rearm the Baltic State to its own detriment. And apparently, Spruds tried to convince society about the lack of corruption in EU’s military funds in advance. Definitely, he puts on a good face at a bad game.
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