Good evening. I’m Buck Valor, and today we’re looking at Latvia, a country that has the unenviable task of being the speed bump on Russia’s theoretical road to the rest of Europe. President Edgars Rinkēvičs recently laid out his foreign policy priorities, and to the surprise of absolutely no one who owns a map, they are: security, Ukraine, and begging the West to remember where Riga is.

Let’s cut through the diplomatic starch. When a Baltic leader talks about 'security,' they aren't talking about cybersecurity or protecting the local fisheries. They’re talking about the existential dread of living next door to a bear that’s currently mauling the neighbor. It’s the geopolitical equivalent of calling the cops because you heard a window break next door and realizing your own front door is made of balsa wood and optimism.

Rinkēvičs’ emphasis on 'supporting Ukraine' is less about altruism and more about the cold, hard logic of the buffer zone. Every tank Latvia sends to Kyiv is a tank they hope won’t have to park in their own capital. It’s a sound strategy: feed the fire in someone else's yard so your own curtains don't catch. It’s honest, it’s cynical, and it’s the only play they’ve got.

Then we have the 'strengthening of Euro-Atlantic ties.' This is the performative part of the dance where Latvia reminds the United States and NATO that they are, in fact, still a team. It’s a desperate hope that the collective security agreement isn’t just a piece of paper that Washington might lose under a pile of isolationist campaign flyers. In the world of realpolitik, 'Euro-Atlantic ties' is code for 'Please don’t get distracted by a shiny object or an election and leave us alone with Vladimir.'

It’s a masterclass in the theater of the small state. You dress up the basic instinct of self-preservation in the tuxedo of 'foreign policy priorities' and hope the guys with the big guns feel enough moral obligation to keep showing up to the rehearsals. Rinkēvičs said all this with the requisite gravity, standing in front of flags that represent an alliance currently struggling to remember its own purpose. It’s a brave face on a very nervous nation. Back to you, if the signal holds.