Europe Is Zelenskyy’s Only Ally Now: Latvia PM Kulbergs

I'm very pleased to be joined now by the Latvian Prime Minister, Andris Cool Bergs, who joins us. Have a fresh election victory. I think we can call it a landslide. The best result since the end of Soviet era. Since the establishment of Latvia. Since the establishment of Latvia. So you got that two here for us. So congratulations first. Secondly, I'd like to bring to the sort of order of business here in Brussels, which is President Zelensky, um, thinking about what the European approach now needs to be. What is the message to Zelensky here? Does he also need to calm his rhetoric down to try to mend things with Trump? Well, we see that Zelensky has only one one ally now. It's actually Europeans. We are the ones backing him up. And that's what I want to tell him. We're all fully, fully backing and undoing all the best we can, we can do from our side, and that's how it's going to stay. And but that sounds like it's more of the kind of a confirmation that the US is kind of abandoning Ukraine at this point. If that is in fact the case, what more can the Europeans do? Obviously, financially, there has been a lot there has been a question about how much hardware can get there. Can we get something more concrete today from the council? Well, um. Well, we also have to understand that, uh, the United States is, uh, are now running into the midterms. It's election time. That's a different vibe. Uh, what has to be more internal politics? Uh, which would you go out and externally as well? So it's not always the case. Uh, how it optics how it's how it looks like. Because it always bends. The election has always been the reality. Um, but for for Zelensky, well, the most important thing what, uh, we're going to discuss today is what he needs for this winter. It's all about this winter. It's it's the winter. It's yes or no. The problem is, uh, the problem is the big problem is Russia was underwater already in the early year. Earlier stage in a year. If Hormuz wasn't there, they would have had total budget deficit, know where to turn to get financing, and the war machine would have not oiled in it. Just pulled the Hormuz effect, pulled them out of the water and they got a breeze. And the war machine went producing. And that's the problem. And in order to suffocate some of that air that is coming in. There are a couple initiatives that are being put forward, one by, uh, by yourself about the grain ban for Russian grain ban. You call it blood grain. There's also a discussion about banning Russian visas of varying kinds within the European. Are those two initiatives cutting through? Can you update us on the status? Yes. Uh, we're not not just mean. So, uh, three Baltic states are pushing that through. Um, number one, uh, Ukraine, because of, uh, Russia gaining on missiles. That's one big problem that the missiles, the ballistic missiles are 83. Uh, companies are still supplying the components. Without those components, those missiles would not fly. That is still happening. Those sanctions are not synchronized. Synchronized that they don't get hands on on these electronics that in return has a problem of Ukraine because they have to arm themselves more. That means more money. And at the second secondary stage, about the grain they the Black Sea corridor is is out. They had record year and grain for for Ukraine is money that is their economy. That's what they do. Uh, they, they can't transport it out, which means they don't gain money. So we have to support them more. The grain in Russia sells. Ukraine cannot sell. We have to put a ban on that European wide in order to open the Black Sea. We have to help them open the Black Sea. And thinking also about the hybrid attacks that we've been seeing, we call it hybrid attacks, which are becoming much more just explicit attacks we've seen to off of the coast of Romania over the, you know, two over 12 hours. You know, how how close are we getting? Because Russia's whole game here is to try to explore all of the gray area that exists right before article five. Are you concerned that we're getting closer to an article five event, and what is the appropriate NATO response to do have deterrence without escalation? Why it's happening because Russia sees an opportunity to impact Europe, to put fear on us, not to support Ukraine, because they're they're dying 1 to 10 now on the battlefield. They they don't have the upper hand and they're doing all possible threats. And that's what's happening. And we're still Europeans giving out visas. Visas for Russians now to into go in and then we're surprised lip sync is happening. Was the drone arson attack in Estonia and Romania, etc.. Are we? Well come on. They always infiltrate through normal tourists into into Europe. We have to ban that. No Russians should travel. And so obviously this is the military conflict. There is now an escalating economic conflict with, uh, with China that we understand now. The council wants to deploy some new tools, some new powers. What is the actual goal of a balanced relationship with China? Because we talk a lot about the deficit. It's obviously very, very massive. I haven't had a clear idea of what we're actually trying to do with China. What is a balanced relationship with China look like in these discussions? Oh, this in the discussions, we understand they are overwhelmingly supporting or subsidizing their business. And that's, uh, how it's how our business is getting killed. Why? Because we have one big asset. We have the market consumption, biggest consumption per capita. China has a problem. They are 90% of their consumption is outside, which means they're relying. They have dependency of overproduction and uh, and uh consumption outside. Which means they the American market is closed for them. Mhm. They have to search elsewhere. So that's, that's where we have to uh, we were discussing that they have a vulnerability and we have the market that does that does not let, does that exploit our market. But does that end now. And what sectors should be prioritized at the. Well the the car sector in the automotive chemicals farm is very important. Then we are talking about the, uh, renewables, uh, where we should not be dependent on China in the level we are, where we are subsidizing, we are subsidizing incentivizing those industries. It should not go away to China. And just thinking very quickly, you've spoken to both of the elite ECB candidates from the Netherlands and Spain. Who are you supporting the the one who will bring the change that the big bank lobby is not happening on the level, that small banks just get excluded from the market. Who is that? Oh, they have them still answered on that question. Okay. Well, Prime Minister of Latvia, Andres Goldberg, thank you so much for your time today. I greatly appreciate.