Meeting with the Washington Examiner and a number of other media outlets this week, Latvian Defense Minister Andris Sprūds expressed his affection for America and expectation that Latvia would maintain close relations with both parties in Congress.
That in mind, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) should have been able to find the time to meet with Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa during her visit to Washington this week. The Latvians requested the meeting but Johnson’s office told them it couldn’t find the time to make it happen. While the Latvians said that they understand Johnson’s time constraints and appreciate his office’s engagement, Johnson’s decision is an unfortunate one.
As the most senior member of Congress and the top elected Republican in the country, Johnson has a responsibility to ensure continued close relations with the best U.S. allies. And Latvia manifestly is one of the best U.S. allies. It deployed troops alongside the U.S. military in both Afghanistan and Iraq, its military and intelligence services cooperate very closely with those of the U.S., and Latvia has adopted policies in support of U.S. efforts to constrain China’s destabilizing activity around the world.
This latter point bears particular note in that Latvia’s comparatively small economy means that China’s retaliatory restrictions of trade are felt more deeply than would be the case for other nations. Beijing’s anger is real. It expects smaller European countries to treat it as larger economies such as France and Germany do. Which is to say, bend the knee in putting trade before all other concerns of security and human rights. When Latvia’s domestic security service pointed out Chinese espionage concerns, for example, the Chinese Embassy in Riga responded furiously that the report had “no factual basis and contains misrepresentations worthless to refute.”
Considering Donald Trump’s justifiable concern over European defense spending levels, Johnson had another very good reason to meet with Siliņa. Spending less than 1% of GDP on defense in 2014, Latvia was one of the few NATO members to take seriously the alliance pledge that year to increase defense spending to at least 2% of GDP. In 2023, Latvia spent 2.25% of GDP on defense and the Baltic nation will reach 3% of GDP defense spending within the next five years. This is what burden sharing looks like. Moreover, facing Russian imperial ambitions toward its territory, Latvia would surely have welcomed any effort by Johnson to assure that Trump and the Republican commitment to reliable NATO allies remains assured.
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The key point here is that Latvia represents exactly that which Trump, Johnson, and other Republicans say they want from allies. Latvia’s defense spending example offers a striking contrast, for example, to the pathetic excuses offered by other far larger European economies such as Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain that they can only move slowly to increase defense spending. The truth is that many European allies continue to neglect their responsibility to NATO’s defense. But Latvia clearly isn’t one of them.
There are very good reasons for Republicans to push Europe hard on defense spending. Similarly, while Johnson’s skepticism over new aid to Ukraine might be ill-judged, it does represent a growing consensus among Republican voters. But when the speaker is unwilling to make time to meet with the most reliable of U.S. allies, he shows a failure to understand the responsibilities of his office and to show respect to those who have done much to show solidarity with America.