The interview is wide-ranging but inevitably regional security is a dominant topic, with Ambassador Smith underlining the U.S. commitment to its allies and all NATO member states' territory against a background of Russia's war in Ukraine and frequent threats made against the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
"Any time [Russia] threatens Latvia or any other NATO ally we take that very seriously. No-one brushes that off or takes it lightly, and that's why we're moving out with these concrete measures to ensure that your country – but not just your country, all of our friends on the eastern flank – have the resources, the troops and the capabilities that they need to cope with any possible contingency."
"Sometimes they threaten to do do something and it can be posturing, it can be bluster, but again we take that very seriously," said Smith. "It's a situation where we've see their playbook many times, we've seen that they like to use disinformation, they like the nuclear saber-rattling – which again we take very seriously – but on that question, despite the fact there's been a considerable amount of nuclear saber-rattling, we have no indication that they're preparing to use nuclear weapons."
You can watch the full interview above.
