President Levits and Speaker Norlén praised active bilateral cooperation in political, trade, education and other areas, as well as highlighted that both countries have shared understanding of challenges like climate change and regional security.
Speaker Norlén pointed out that Sweden is one of Latvia’s biggest trade partners and is looking forward to building closer trade relations with Latvia in future. President Levits praised the work of Stockholm School of Economics in Riga which has been providing top-class education for students here in Latvia for already 25 years.
President Levits and Speaker Norlén also highlighted the close cooperation between Baltic and Nordic countries in various formats and indicated that such cooperation on emerging challenges faced by the European Union (EU) will only intensify. The President and the Speaker discussed the significance of the rule of law for the EU and ways of strengthening the rule of law at the member state level.
Egils Levits and Andreas Norlén exchanged views on the security of the Baltic Sea region. President of Latvia noted that Latvia has accrued extensive expertise on security and hybrid threats. He also expressed appreciation for the role played by NATO, the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki and NATO STRATCOM in tackling common challenges. President Levits thanked Speaker Norlén for attending the Riga Conference which starts tomorrow. Conference held at the Latvian National Library has evolved into a well-established annual regional security and foreign policy forum.
President Levits and Speaker Norlén also reiterated their support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity while discussing the EU-Russia and EU-Ukraine relations.
