The press conference will feature Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs, Head of the Crisis Management Center Arvis Zile, Minister of Defense Raivis Melnišs, and Minister of the Interior Janis Dombrava. As reported, last week the Prime Minister stated that significant preventive actions would be taken in August by the ministries of internal affairs and defense to limit the flow of illegal migrants at the Latvia-Belarus border, which is also the external border of the European Union. The Prime Minister emphasized that to ensure national security, the government is considering all possible options to address the issue of illegal migration. He noted that closing the "Paternieki" border checkpoint on the Latvia-Belarus border is one of the options being considered, although the flow of illegal migration is not observed at a specific border checkpoint, but rather at sections of the border outside of it. When asked to what extent economic considerations influence the possibility of not closing "Paternieki" for now, the Prime Minister replied that security is the main priority. Dombrava, for his part, confirmed that an agreement has been reached for even closer cooperation between the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, and the National Armed Forces to prevent border violators from entering Latvia. "Various other options are also being evaluated on how to act to reduce the number of [illegal migrants] to zero," the minister said. When asked to comment on the government's decision not to close the "Paternieki" border checkpoint at his suggestion, the minister replied that suspending the operation of a specific border checkpoint is one of the options. Speaking about the circumstances under which the government could revisit this issue, the minister pointed out that in other countries similar decisions have been made when problems at border control points have escalated. Accordingly, in such circumstances, a decision to close the border checkpoint could be made quickly.
