Diplomacy
To coincide with Rīga hosting this year's Three Seas Initiative (3SI) summit and business forum, about which we have already written, the Latvian Institute of International Affairs (LIIA) is publishing a new book.
On June 16, the Saeima supported the appointment of Jautrīte Briede as a Constitutional Court (ST) justice.
On June 8-9, the leader of the democratic movement in Belarus and that country's president-elect, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, will be visiting Riga.
On June 3, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, met with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Canada and Lithuania to open the Business Roundtable in Toronto with the participation of Canada’s largest pension funds, banks, as well as the energy sector.
Mélanie Joly, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, is currently hosting a visit by Eva-Maria Liimets, Estonia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, Latvia’s Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from June 1 to 3, 2022.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, passed a decision June 1 on including 34 more citizens of the Russian Federation in the list of personae non gratae in the Republic of Latvia in accordance with Section 61, Paragraph two of the Immigration Law.
On 26 May 2022, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, welcomed the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defense of Ireland, Simon Coveney, to Rīga to hold an exchange of views on the bilateral relations, the security situation in the region, and providing support for Ukraine.
On May 23, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, had a telephone call with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, for a discussion on the current geopolitical situation and the issue of NATO enlargement, according to a release from the Latvian MFA.
May 18 and 19 the Chairs of the Baltic Foreign Affairs Committees are in Spain to have meetings with Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Congress of Deputies Pau Marí-Klose, Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate Antonio Gutiérrez Limones and Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation José Manuel Albares Bueno.
With both Finland and Sweden both moving decisively May 16 towards becoming full NATO members, the Baltic states responded enthusiastically in the form of a joint statement from the three countries' foreign ministers. It reads:
The accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO would improve security in the Baltic Sea region, said Jānis Sārts, director of the NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence (STRATCOMCOE), told Latvian Television on May 16.
On 13 May 2022, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, passed a decision on including another 102 more citizens of the Russian Federation in the list of personae non gratae in accordance with Section 61, Paragraph two of the Immigration Law.
As expected, the Russian embassy in Latvia did not take Saeima's decision to allow the removal and suspend the maintenance of Soviet memorials too well.
On May 6, Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkevics, alongside his Estonian and Lithuanian counterparts, visited Ukraine.
The Latvian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Russian ambassador to Latvia Mikhail Vanin demanding explanations about the Russian Foreign Ministry's statement accusing Latvia of antisemitism and neo-Nazism, Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs tweeted on May 3.
April 29 sees Rīga a hub of international diplomacy again with the Foreign Ministers of the Baltic states and Poland meeting in the Latvian capital.
Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced April 21 that Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia should close their consulates in St. Petersburg and Pskov.
On April 20, 2022, the Foreign Ministers of the Baltic States and Germany issued a joint statement condemning Russia's war crimes. The statement can be read in full below.
The Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs and the German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock met on April 20 in Rīga to discuss Russia's aggression in Ukraine.
April 20 will see Rīga hosting another important piece of international diplomacy with the German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Annalena Baerbock on a visit to Latvia.
Latvia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs MFA) on April 1 repeated its advice that Latvian nationals should not cross the border into Belarus.
Latvia ramped up its reaction to Russian outrages in Ukraine on April 5 by announcing the closure of two Russian government offices in Latvia and the expulsion of their 13 staff.
On April 1 2022 in Tallinn, Estonia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edgars Rinkēvičs, met with the rightful leader of Belarus, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, for a discussion on issues related to the war launched by Russia on Ukraine and the ways to support Belarusian civil society.
On 29-30 March 2022, Vilnius, Lithuania hosted a meeting of the State Secretaries of the Baltic and Nordic countries (NB8), at which Latvia was represented by the Deputy State Secretary for European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Astra Kurme.
In an expected move March 29, Russia announced the expulsion of several diplomats from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in reaction to the recent expulsion from those countries of Russian diplomatic staff.
Six more Russian citizens have been added to Latvia's list of personae non gratae, Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs announced March 23.
Twenty-five more Russian citizens have been added to Latvia's list of personae non gratae, Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs announced March 23.
Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs declared three Russian diplomats personae non gratae in Latvia on March 18, according to a release by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On 14 March 2022, in the Vatican, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, met with His Holiness Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, for a discussion on current foreign policy issues, especially Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and its impact on the security situation in the region and across Europe, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
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