Kariņš and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa took part in a joint press conference, which you can watch below. In it, Kariņš paid tribute to Merkel's political skills and in particular her ability to achieve compromises.
"It is this patience and understanding that has steered Europe through many a storm," Kariņs said.
He said the situation at the border with Belarus was "a hybrid attack against the whole European Union, something we have not seen before. It is what I would call state-sponsored human trafficking which is affecting directly my country, Lithuania and Poland but we have a very clear understanding that the only way to secure the Schengen Zone, the free movement of people within the European Union is to have clear outer borders with clear procedures of entering the European Union."
