Latvia will host the second international innovation summit Drone Summit 2026; Media registration is open
Ministry of Defence of Latvia calls media representatives to cover the second International Drone Summit, that will bring together up to 2,000 participants in one place – prominent speakers and guests, political leaders from Drone Coalition member states, as well as military experts, scientists, entrepreneurs, and leaders of the drone industry.
Drone Summit 2026 will be held on 27th of May this year at the ATTA CENTRE event centre in Riga.
We invite representatives of the media to cover the Drone Summit by registering their attendance in advance – no later than May 5 at 17:00 PM – by submitting an application via this registration link. The working language of the event will be English. Applications received after the indicated deadline will not be processed.
Each application will be reviewed for compliance with the event’s thematic and security criteria, and the organizers reserve the right to reject any application.
After the application has been approved, a confirmation email will be sent with further instructions regarding participation registration. Information about the event programme for the media and opportunities to arrange interviews with summit participants will also be provided, including experts from Ukraine, the United States, as well as representatives of Latvian and international defence industry companies.
Additional information can be found on the Drone Summit website: https://dronesummit.lv/ .
Compared to 2025, Drone Summit 2026 will be expanded and organized as a set of several mutually complementary events, covering various NATO and European-level activities in May and June 2026:
• May 22-26 – Comprehensive tests of unmanned aircraft systems and countermeasure systems within the framework of the NATO Innovation range, organized by NATO, and final demonstrations at the Sēlija training ground for Drone Summit guests;
• May 25-26 – International academic conference dedicated to the drone innovation ecosystem, organized by Riga Technical University;
• May 27 – main event – Drone Summit at the ATTA Centre in Riga;
• May 31 – June 5 – Pilot training organized by the European Security Agency, including the European Security Agency Symposium in Riga.
The international Drone Coalition consists of 20 member countries whose aim is to ensure the delivery of drones, technological support, and assistance in personnel training to meet Ukraine’s needs. In 2024, the total support from Drone Coalition member states to Ukraine’s drone capabilities reached 1.8 € billion. Latvia allocated a total of 45 million € for the Drone Coalition in 2024 and 2025. In 2026, funding for drones for Ukraine has been doubled to 50 million €, which will be used to purchase drones from Latvian drone manufacturers.
It has already been reported that last year on May 28, Riga hosted the first-ever defence innovation summit “Drone Summit 2025”, which brought together more than 1500 high-level political leaders, military experts, scientists, and representatives of the defence industry from 20 Drone Coalition member states and other allied countries.
The Drone Summit is organized by The State Centre for Defence Logistics and Procurement in cooperation with Latvian Ministry of Defence, the Autonomous Systems Competence Center and Riga Technical University.
Information prepared by:
MoD Military Public Affairs Department
Media Relations Section
Phone: 67335210
E-mail: prese@mod.gov.lv