National Armed Forces increase support to the State Border Guard on Latvia's Eastern border

With the increasing efforts of illegal migrants to enter the territory of Latvia, the Minister of Defence Ināra Mūrniece has instructed the National Armed Forces to deploy additional forces to support the State Border Guard on the Latvia-Belarus border.

"I have instructed the National Armed Forces to provide additional support to the State Border Guard to strengthen the security of Latvia's eastern border. At the same time, the National Armed Forces, together with allies, continue to organise military exercises in Latgale. This is a way not only to improve the capacity to protect Latvia's territory, but also to increase the number of troops deployed in the region," said Ināra Mūrniece.

A comprehensive national defence exercise "Namejs 2023" will take place across Latvia from 5 September to 2 October, involving more than 8,500 Latvian and allied armed forces soldiers and national guards. 

In preparation for Namejs 2023, a field tactical exercise of the 32nd Infantry Battalion of the 3rd Latgale Brigade of the National Guard will take place from 19 to 20 August in the territories of Rezekne and Ludza municipalities, with the aim to train and test the unit's general combat capabilities. During the exercise, soldiers and national guards will be temporarily deployed in the terrain, as well as military vehicles will be moved along public and adjacent minor roads. Training tasks will be carried out both during daylight and dark hours of the day in order to train the ability to perform tasks in different conditions.

As reported earlier, from 2 to 4 August, the military exercise "Nameja Shield" was held in several Vidzeme and Latgale regions with the aim to train cooperation and interoperability between the National Armed Forces and allied units. Similarly, from 10 to 11 August, the military exercise "Nameja shield 2" was held in several regions of Latgale to improve the readiness of the National Armed Forces units to perform national defence tasks.

Contact information
Roberts Skraučs
Head of the Media Relations Section
Military Public Affairs Department
Tel.: 67335393
E-mail: roberts.skraucs@mod.gov.lv