Strengthening NATO’s defence and security, cooperation with partners around the world, weakening Russia’s military and economic capabilities, and continuing support for Ukraine were the main topics at the NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting on 14-15 May 2025 in Antalya, Türkiye.
The meeting comes at the time when direct talks between Russia and Ukraine on ending the war have been scheduled to be held in the Turkish city of Istanbul, to which Putin, the day before the talks, delegated another representative in his place.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže: “To this day, there is no indication from Russia that it has a genuine desire for peace and ceasing aggression, and Vladimir Putin’s decision not to attend the meeting he has initiated is yet another testament to that. It is true that this decision does not come as a surprise – rather as a predictable Kremlin butcher’s tactic of dragging his feet.
We agree that Russia is and will remain the most significant threat to the entire Alliance. Together, we all need to push Russia to peace. Undermining Russia’s crumbling war economy and weakening its military capabilities is the most direct and cheapest way to achieve peace in Ukraine and across the Euro-Atlantic space, including by strengthening sanctions against Russia.”
Baiba Braže said there was full support among the members of the Alliance for U.S. President Trump’s efforts to secure peace as soon as possible and end the war in Ukraine. The readiness of the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to engage in peace talks with Vladimir Putin has also been highly welcomed.
The ministers discussed preparations for the NATO summit to be held in The Hague, the Netherlands, on June 24-25. Baiba Braže emphasized that it is important to agree at the summit on further long-term military support for Ukraine and on increasing the Alliance's collective defence spending and deterrence capabilities. “Latvia takes its security and defence very seriously and in 2025 has allocated the largest amount of funding to defence in the country’s history – more than 1.5 billion euros, or 3.65% of GDP, to be raised to 5% of GDP in 2026. Over the past three years, NATO member states’ defence expenditure rose significantly and, in the past months and weeks, several Allies have announced considerable increases. We expect all the Allies to follow suit,” Baiba Braže emphasized at the meeting.
The United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized at the meeting in Antalya that The Hague summit will mark a new phase, as the Alliance must be able to become stronger, more just and militarily capable, as well as to ensure a fair burden sharing by moving towards all member states spending of 5% of their GDP on defence.
