Dear John,
Last weekend I hosted the Latvian delegation who came to reinforce Nebraska’s historical and cultural connections to their country. We discussed defense and deterrence issues within the areas of information and cyber operations, along with opportunities to build academic relationships between the University of Nebraska - Omaha and their research institute in Riga, Latvia. Such a visit puts Nebraska at the forefront of strengthening of our national security by demonstrating our commitment to our NATO allies and the U.S.-Latvian bilateral relationship.
Since Latvia regained its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union, our two nations have had a longstanding defense partnership. The Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea, the attacks in Central Ukraine and Georgia have highlighted the importance of this partnership and the need for vigilance. Latvia and the other Baltic countries are on the front lines with Russia, and we must ensure we have a strong deterrence strategy. One wring move here will result in Russian aggression against these countries who have embraced democracy, free markets, and our way of life.
The delegation included:
- State Secretary of the Ministry of Defense of Latvia, Janis Garisons
- Major General, Andis Dilans
- Defense Counselor for the State Secretary, Rolands Henins
- Director of the Defense Policy Department, Ginta Brumane-Gromula
Our first visit was to the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Many members of the congregation are from Latvia but haven’t been back in years. Some of them fled around the end of World War II. Secretary Garison spoke about how vital continued support from the United States is to maintaining a free and independent Latvia. I shared the work we are doing on the Baltic Caucus, which I co-chair, to develop the Baltic Security Initiative for inclusion in FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
A huge part of the mission at USSTRATCOM and Strategic Air Command is deterrence, so a visit to the SAC museum was included. The SAC aircraft preserved there were an essential part of America’s successful strategy of deterrence and containment during the Cold War.
Building diplomacy involves sharing culture so we visited Vala’s Pumpkin Patch to experience one of our Midwest autumn traditions! Vala's remains a staple in our local community, and we enjoy supporting local, family-owned businesses and farms. In addition, they showed us their yet-to-be opened cider barn, which is expanding the agricultural side of their operations.
On Monday, we visited the University of Nebraska Omaha’s (UNO) National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education (NCITE) Center of Excellence. According to Dr. Gina Legion, NCITE is a federally funded academic consortium with the most “researchers in the country studying counterterrorism.” The purpose of the visit was to build an academic relationship with UNO’s NCITE center and the research center in Riga.
Secretary Garisons and I also participated in a question-and-answer session with Foreign Affairs students as well as members of our community at the UNO Community Engagement Center.
Our office enjoys working with and attending local businesses and schools within our district, and we were humbled to have Latvian delegation experience our great NE-02 community.
As always, if you have questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us at bacon.house.gov/contact/ or 402-938-0300.
Sincerely,
Don Bacon
