NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has welcomed Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs to alliance headquarters in Brussels for talks on the upcoming NATO summit in Ankara and the alliance’s deterrence and defence posture.
The meeting on 17 June 2026 came in the wake of an incident earlier in the month in which French jets deployed on NATO Baltic Air Policing duties intercepted and destroyed a drone that had entered Latvian airspace. “Such drone incidents on NATO’s eastern flank show Russia’s dangerous and reckless actions,” Rutte said, as quoted by the alliance. “But it also shows once again NATO’s determination and ability to deter and defend. No Ally stands alone in NATO.”
Baltic Air Policing has been one of NATO’s longest-running collective defence missions, operating continuously since 2004 when the three Baltic states joined the alliance without possessing their own fighter capabilities. Allied air forces rotate through bases in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on roughly four-month detachments, providing quick reaction alert coverage along a stretch of the alliance’s eastern flank that borders both Russia and Belarus. The mission has expanded in scope and tempo since 2022, with incursions, near-misses and unidentified airborne objects becoming a more frequent feature of the operating picture.
Drone incidents in particular have grown more prominent over the past year as Russian forces use uncrewed systems at scale in Ukraine and as debris, errant systems and reconnaissance platforms have repeatedly drifted across borders into NATO territory. Latvia, Romania, Poland and other states neighbouring the conflict zone have all reported incursions, prompting alliance members to invest in counter-drone systems and to review rules of engagement for shooting down small uncrewed platforms in peacetime airspace.
Rutte singled out Latvia’s broader defence contribution, with core defence spending due to reach almost 5 per cent of GDP this year. “Delivering increased defence investment, more defence production, and of course, our strong support for Ukraine. Latvia is already showing how it’s done,” he said, according to NATO. The Secretary General linked those themes directly to the agenda for the Ankara summit next month, indicating that defence investment, production capacity and continued support for Kyiv would be central items on the table when allied leaders convene.
The Ankara summit will be the first held in Turkey and the first hosted by a member state along NATO’s southern flank in several years. Defence production, eastern flank deterrence and the Ukraine support architecture are expected to dominate the agenda alongside the alliance’s ongoing internal debate over burden-sharing.
Yet another NATO ally demonstrates that spending 5% of GDP on defence is perfectly do-able.