Transcript

PRESIDENT ZATLERS:  Ladies and gentlemen, this month Latvia is celebrating five-year anniversary since joining the European Union and NATO. I would like to stress that NATO membership has ensured the irreversibility of Latvian statehood. It has also served the goal of the alliance to promote Euro-Atlantic area of security and stability. We are celebrating our return to the Euro-Atlantic community that has been achieved by hard and consistent work. At the same time, there is perhaps even more work to be done in the current situation dealing with the impact of the global financial and economic crisis.

It is inevitable that there are new challenges standing ahead of us for the whole Euro-Atlantic community. We face the rise of new regional powers in different parts of the world -- China, India, Brazil; also Indonesia, Turkey; and also let's include Latvian neighbor, Russia.  Next coming 10, 20 years will put the trial for the Euro-Atlantic partnership. Time will try our common values -- democracy, respect for human rights, and free societies. Time will try the EU and NATO relationship in a situation when the world is struggling with economic and financial challenges and turning into a multipolar world.

The Alliance -- Atlantic Alliance -- is the most successful collective defense organization ever established in history. Its success is in large measure due to its ability to adapt and to transform itself. It is a guarantee that the Alliance will, in the years to come, be able to find and create the most effective tools and capabilities to defend the interests of the Alliance.

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