RIGA, Feb 15 (LETA) - Defense Minister Raimonds Bergmanis (Greens/Farmers) has promised to make sure that the government’s commitment to raising Latvia’s defense budget to 2 percent of GDP is not changed, the Defense Ministry said in a statement to the press.

The statement was released after U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis warned earlier today that Washington will “moderate its commitment” to NATO unless other members of the alliance do increase their defense spending.

Bergmanis attended a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, which took place as part of NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels today.

The meeting focused on the implementation of the agreements reached at the NATO Warsaw Summit, including the creation and deployment of multinational battalion-size battle groups in the Baltic states and Poland, the alliance’s ability to deal with new security challenges, the fight against terrorism, member states’ contributions to the NATO budget and how to use financing as effectively as possible.

The Latvian minister stressed that the question of defense resources was now more than ever the alliance’s top priority. “Security is never cheap. Otherwise it could cost the state. The Latvian government has committed to raising the defense budget to 2 percent of GDP already next year, and as defense minister, I will fight to ensure that this decision and measure is not changed,” Bergmanis said.

The defense minister express support for increasing NATO’s involvement in the fight against terrorism and stressed Latvia’s concerns about the situation of terrorism-stricken countries, realizing at the same time the global character of the problem.

“Latvia has been participating in the clamp down on terrorism for 15 years as a part of NATO and the EU and multinational coalitions. For this cause, our troops have been fighting alongside soldiers of the United States, Great Britain, Spain, Poland, Norway, Germany, France, Denmark and other allied countries. Latvia is determined to continue this fight together with its allies,” Bergmanis said.

In the context of new security challenges, it is essential to boost the alliance’s unity and its member states’ mutual cooperation, as well as to provide the necessary funding for defense.

Bergmanis is in Brussels this Wednesday and Thursday for the meeting of NATO defense ministers.

The Latvian government resolved in 2015 to spend 1.4 percent of GDP on defense in 2016, and to raise the defense budget to 1.7 percent of GDP in 2017. Starting 2018, Latvia will allocate 2 percent of GDP to defense each year. This year, Latvia is going to spend EUR 449 million on defense, up from EUR 367.86 million in 2016.