Baiba Braže to take up new NATO role

Baiba Braže will end her term as Latvian ambassador to the United Kingdom and become assistant secretary general of NATO for public diplomacy, Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs announced.

Congratulations on the appointment and tributes to the work she has done in the UK quickly filled up social media. 

Braže told LSM: "I am very much looking forward to working for the most successful defensive alliance, for the benefit of all allies."

Braže was appointed ambassador to the UK in 2016, shortly after the landmark Brexit vote and has impressed during the nearly four years since, becoming a regular EU voice in British media and negotiating the twists and turns of Brexit Britain with aplomb, as well as travelling widely and making numerous public appearances.

Baiba Braže started to work for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1993. She has held many posts in the Foreign Service, including: the Head of the Humanitarian Affairs Division, Director of the First Political Department, Ambassador of the Republic of Latvia to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Latvia to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the Head of the Directorate of Security Policy and International Organisations. Baiba Braže has also worked as Foreign Affairs Advisor to the Prime Minister of Latvia and as Head of the Communications Directorate and Latvia’s non-resident Ambassador to Indonesia.

She graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Latvia and earned a Master’s degree in Social Sciences for Communication Science at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Latvia.

It is the second recent appointment of a Latvian diplomat to a key position at a major multinational organization. As recently reported by LSM, Ilze Juhansone recently became the European Union's senior civil servant.