You heard from my colleague in Brussels, the latest piece of EU oversight of a large American technology company. There's also sort of a personal consideration. Hanover can and will become an important leader in Europe when it comes to tech. What is Latvia's attitude to the policy side but also the new people at the top? Well, actually, we have heard the proposal from the president of the European Commission about the new commissioners. I do believe that this is quite a balanced proposal. But let's not forget that the European Parliament still needs to approve each and every commissioner. There's going to be a grilling. But I do hope that the new commission is going to be very much focused on the competitiveness of the European Union. I think defence and security is going to play a huge role also when it comes to the new budget. And then indeed we have a new issue, as you already mentioned, about a couple of my meetings. Also, we have those well, those meetings

Mr. President met open. Those are today. I'm just starting from this morning meeting with all those. What's your ambition for those meetings, Mr. President? There are actually two big issues. One, Latvia is striving to become one of the, I would say, pioneers and leaders of artificial intelligence in the European Union. We are now creating our National Artificial Intelligence Center. That is a private-public partnership. Actually, the idea started from security concerns, but now we have expanded it not only to include security like deep fakes, like interference in the elections, but also in order to create a competitive environment and to take, let's say, lead in this manner. And one thing that I am going to discuss and look at is the way how we can cooperate. We already have very good cooperation with Google for this matter, and we very much hope to expand it. So that's one second. Indeed, I do believe that it is very important that we discuss how we are

going to address artificial intelligence, social media, you know, all those discussions, whether we should view them as challenges or opportunities. I'm still trying to find a way how to find a middle ground and being the part of the European Union, of course, to influence also the discussion. President, is more regulation necessary when it comes to AI and social media? Well, this is a very tough question. I do believe that if we look at some challenges, we have seen the use of social media, artificial intelligence for disinformation, deepfakes, interference in elections. I think we need some framework. But at the same time, and this is sometimes a challenge for the European Union and about the European Union, let's face it, we sometimes in Europe get overly regulatory. Sometimes we believe that here in the United States there is too much liberal approach. So from that point of view, I would say that the balance to some regulation,

especially when it comes to serious issues, the crime of political interference. Yes, we do need rules, but let's not overreact also here. Let's talk about serious issues at the moment that the EU and your country in particular faces when it comes to Russia and armed Russia. And we understand a drone recently crashed in Latvia. How should NATO respond to this sort of technology, to drones? Should they shoot them down? What is your view? Well, actually, this is a really very good question because also as part of my visit, I've been in Nice. We were talking about the cooperation in our ethics in the drone industry. My country also leads a strong coalition that is supportive of Ukraine. But when we talk about defense, I do believe that we currently lack a common approach in NATO's. We're having already three countries, my country, Latvia, Romania, Poland, where we have seen drones crashed.

Investigation is still ongoing, but that is a great reason to suspect that that Shaheed drone was actually blowing flying from from Ukraine, bypassing Belarus and simply crushed. My believe is, yes, we need to shoot down those drones. We need to give more air defense equipment to Ukraine. But also back in Natal we are talking about the need to increase also natal presence when it comes to any difference in so-called eastern flank. So yes, Natal must adapt to the new reality and we must shoot down drones. We must protect the territory of the alliance. Mr. President, Latvia has has a role here because of its location, its geographic proximity to what is happening. A big question asked of leaders across the European Union is what to do next and whether from a technology and weapons standpoint there is an argument to approve the use of sort of longer range technology to go into Russia in support of Ukraine doing such an action. What is your policy on that? Well, I think it would be very

surprising if I would be saying that we have to be cautious now. The longstanding real Latvian government, my personal view is that when it comes to Ukraine, when it comes to support for Ukraine, we must allow using all weapons, all weapons systems that we provide to Ukraine unconditionally. I don't believe in that. Talk about escalation. Yes, we hear a voice from Moscow. But if you look back at the beginning of the invasion in February 2022, they have heard that kind of messages from Moscow and actually about this happening when Russia escalates, Ukraine is not able to respond. But when Ukraine gets weapons and is able to respond, actually Russia is not escalating, it actually de-escalate. So my own firm believe is that we must change the narrative from we must help Ukraine deal or whatever it takes or how long it takes to we must help Ukraine to it's there no diplomatic breakthrough to the deadlock. We've got much of that being discussed.

in a presidential election race here in the United States. I think that there is already some political process. We had the peace summit in Switzerland in June. President Zelensky is talking about another peace summit, maybe somewhere in November, maybe after the US elections. But I do believe that a diplomatic breakthrough or political process can start only when Russia sees that it cannot move forward, that we are supporting Ukraine, and that it needs to sit at the table. It's not for the Ukrainians currently to call the first shot. It's actually for Russia. But I also think that there is not going to be any political process until U.S. elections. Most probably, we can talk about some kind of political process or some kind of diplomatic efforts next year. But here, I think that we also should not make a mistake if we start, let's say, putting some kind of limitations on Ukraine; then we are not going to see Russia willing to sit at the table.

Just the opposite. Mr. President, we have less than a minute. You'll meet with Apollo. You'll meet with open air. I'm curious if you want to attract investment infrastructure like datacentre talent in your country. Absolutely. That's one of the things that they are going to talk about attracting investment. Yesterday, I had the event where some of our startups were pitching for investment. I think they were doing great. There was growth and interest and yes, I will be doing my best, but also to attract the talent investment to get partnership was open and I had other companies.

NATO should be allowed to shoot down stray Russian drones, says Latvia's president

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