WIESBADEN, Germany (April 20, 2015) -- Army Europe headquarters welcomed Lt. Gen. Raimonds Graube, the Latvian Chief of Defense of Armed Forces, April 20, who met with Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, commander of Army Europe, here during a visit to discuss ongoing exercises and future opportunities to build the alliance.
"We feel much safer and stronger because of the alliance and because we have friends like the United States," Graube said during a small media event at the end of his visit.
The general also spoke about the ongoing situation in the Baltic states and how the partnership between Latvian and U.S. Soldiers is imperative to deterring Russian aggression.
"It is not only just a political statement, it is real, their forces are there," Graube said speaking about Russia's recent flyovers and submarine activity in Latvia's air and maritime zones.
"Because of the situation around my country's borders, your [U.S.] help and assistance is crucial and the United States is still exercising side by side with Latvian Soldiers," the defense chief added.
Turning to a more positive note, Graube mentioned the growing friendships he had witnessed over the past year between the two nations. He insisted that exercises taking place fostered a very important social aspect to partnership training and that he was very happy seeing this.
"These exercises are not only a great opportunity for Soldiers to train together for future deployments but it is also about friendship," Graube said. "A very important piece that we should not forget about is the social part, they are living together and training together. We are friends."
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About Us: U.S. Army Europe is uniquely positioned in its 51-country area of responsibility to advance American strategic interests in Europe and Eurasia. The relationships built during the more than 1,000 theater security cooperation events, held in more than 40 countries each year, lead directly to support for multinational contingency operations around the world, strengthen regional partnerships and enhance global security.
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