BRUSSELS — Russia on Wednesday started a live-fire military exercise in the Baltic Sea, just outside of NATO territorial waters, in a move a top Latvian defense official called a ‘‘show of force’’ just a day after their president and other Baltic leaders met in the Oval Office with President Trump.
The three-day missile test forced a partial shutdown of Latvian civilian airspace and was the first time Russia has tested live munitions in Latvia’s exclusive economic zone, a stretch of international waters just outside Latvia’s territory in the Baltic Sea. Latvian defense officials said they were carefully monitoring the situation.
‘‘What concerns us is that it’s the first time when they’ve actually exercised so close to our borders,’’ said Janis Garisons, the state secretary of the Latvian Defense Ministry. ‘‘We regard it as a show of force, nothing else. There have not been any kinds of provocative actions, but there are still two days to come.’’
The presidents of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia all met Trump at the White House on Tuesday, a long-planned visit that came as the countries celebrated their 100th anniversaries of independence. During World War II, they were occupied by the Soviet Union and did not regain sovereignty until 1991, and they have long felt themselves on the frontline of conflict with Russia.
Sweden and Poland also received notifications from the Russian Defense Ministry about live-fire exercises in the Baltic Sea, and Sweden has also shut down a portion of its airspace during the three-day Russian operation. The notifications were sent last week.
Baltic leaders have expressed concern about Trump’s reluctance to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin for a laundry-list of violations of international norms, including most recently, the alleged poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England. But they have embraced Trump’s robust military spending increases and say that US policy toward Russia appears as hawkish as in previous presidential administrations.
Garisons said he was cautious about making a direct link between the Russian exercises and the White House meeting.
‘‘You can link it to many things,’’ he said, including the expulsions last week of Russian diplomats from most European countries in response to the Salisbury nerve agent poisoning. NATO’s top military commander, US Army General Curtis Scaparrotti, is scheduled to visit Latvia on Thursday. Scaparrotti is also the commander of US military forces in Europe.
Trump said Tuesday he appreciated that the Baltic countries were all on track to meet by the end of 2018 the NATO goal of spending at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense, something he has slammed other nations for failing to achieve.
‘‘I especially want to commend the Baltic nations on meeting their defense spending obligations this year for NATO, unlike some of the other countries, frankly, that haven’t met their obligations, but they will,’’ he said ahead of the meeting.
The United States is expected to impose additional sanctions against Russia by Friday, according to US officials.
The sanctions are economic and designed to target oligarchs with ties to Putin, the officials said. The final number remains fluid, the US officials said, but is expected to include at least a half a dozen people under sanctions powers given to the president by Congress.
