Latvia May Reinstate Compulsory Military Service - Defense Ministry
17:41 05.10.2015(updated 17:54 05.10.2015)
Latvia has begun mobilizing reservists and is considering a return to compulsory military service, a spokesman for Latvia's Defense Ministry said Monday.
IGA (Sputnik) – In March, neighbor country Lithuania reintroduced military conscription in light of geopolitical tensions over the Ukraine crisis.
'The issue [of general mobilization] is on the agenda, but not this year,' Normunds Stafeckis told the Latvijas Radio 4 station.
According to the spokesman, reservist exercises will begin this fall. About 300 former servicemen have received corresponding notices, Stafeckis added.
Mandatory military conscription was scrapped in Lithuania in 2008, four years after the country joined NATO, as the Baltic nation chose to create a professional army.
In late September, the Latvian government endorsed a draft bill that would see the military boost spending in the coming years up to 2 percent of the country's gross domestic product, as a requirement of NATO membership.
© Sputnik
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
