On June 5, the Minister of Defense of Latvia, Artis Pabriks, announced that in order to improve the recruitment system in the armed forces, the Ministry of Defense will propose introducing a universal military service system in Latvia.
The Minister of Defense noted that the current system has exhausted itself. It is planned to introduce the system of universal military service gradually over the next 5 years. And from January 1, 2023, the first stage will begin, during which it will be possible to voluntarily participate in the draft.
It is planned to hold conscription twice a year: on January 1 and July 1. Men aged 18-27 are subject to conscription. Women’s service will be on a voluntary basis.
Thus, the goal of the Ministry of Defense of Latvia is to increase the number of national armed forces in war conditions to 50,000 within 5 years.
All this, according to the Latvian Defense Minister, is caused by the Ukrainian crisis.
Let’s remind that the Supreme Council of Latvia adopted the law on compulsory military service on September 10, 1991. The first conscription took place in April 1992, the last one at the end of November 2006. Since 2007, a professional army system has been operating in the country, which implies only contractual military service. However, it is not possible to face the existing security threats without a regular army equipped with mandatory military service, so a transition will be made again to the system operating until 2006.
Recently, such a trend has been observed in other European countries as well, which reaffirms the fact that the world is moving towards militarization. And even being a member of NATO is not a sufficient guarantee for Latvia, so the latter decided to gradually restore the mandatory conscription.
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