UK’s Sunak to attend Baltic summit, meet UK troops in Estonia

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during his visit to RAF Coningsby in Linconshire following the announcement that Britain will work to develop next-generation fighter jets with Italy and Japan. Joe Giddens/Pool via REUTERS

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will meet his Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts at the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) summit in the Latvian capital Riga on Monday, before heading to Estonia to meet British and Nato troops, the government said.

The JEF, a British-led group of Denmark, Estonia, Finland and Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, will be addressed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

At the summit, Sunak will call on leaders to sustain or increase lethal aid, economic resilience and political backing to Ukraine in its resistance against Russia’s invasion, according to a British government statement.

The prime minister’s call comes after the UK announced it will supply hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition to Ukraine next year, in a package worth 250 million pounds ($305 million).

Sunak will also discuss support to Finland and Sweden ahead of them joining the Nato security grouping and scaling up joint exercises to further strengthen the JEF alliance.

After the JEF summit, Sunak is expected to meet Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins, before heading to Estonia to meet UK and Nato troops serving on the military alliance’s eastern flank on the Russian border.

Sunak will sign a technology partnership agreement with the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, to bolster technology ties and support new digital infrastructure, the statement said.

($1 = 0.8203 pounds)

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