Diplomat Ilze Milta has accepted President Edgars Rinkēvičs's invitation and will assume the position of National Security Adviser to the President at the end of August this year.
Since 1 September 2020, Ilze Milta has been acting as Deputy Head of Mission at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Latvia to NATO in Brussels, Belgium.
Ilze Milta joined the Latvian Foreign Service in 2001. Over the course of her more than two decades in the diplomatic service, she has performed various duties both in the central apparatus of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia in Riga and abroad. I. Milta was the Director of the Security Policy Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2016). From 2011 to 2015, she served as the Latvian representative to the NATO Political and Partnership Committee. In 2015-2016, I. Milta was appointed as Latvia's representative to the Russia and Ukraine Section of the Political Affairs and Security Policy Division of the NATO International Staff in accordance with a decision of the Cabinet of Ministers.
Ilze Milta has also held a position at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) as a policy advisor in the Ukraine Support Group (2018-2020).
From 2007 to 2010, I. Milta served as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Prior to her appointment in 2007, she was Deputy Head and subsequently Head of Department in the European Union Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this capacity, she was responsible for coordinating bilateral and regional cooperation between the Baltic and Nordic countries, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria.
I. Milta was involved in preparing and organizing the 2006 NATO Summit in Riga, working as an advisor in the Bureau for the Organisation of the NATO Heads of State and Government Meeting of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Latvia (2005-2007).
At the beginning of her diplomatic career, from 2002 to 2005 I. Milta worked at the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia to the United States of America in Washington, D.C.
I. Milta holds a Master's degree in International Politics from the Diplomatic School of Brussels (2019) and a Bachelor's degree in Humanities (English Philology) from the University of Latvia (2002).
In recognition of her contributions to the Latvian state and for her role in the organisation of the Riga NATO Heads of State and Government Meeting, I. Milta was awarded the Medal of Honour of the highest rank of the Cross of Recognition (2007). For her contribution to the work of the Latvian Foreign Service and to the development of the country's foreign policy, in 2022 I. Milta was awarded the Cabinet of Ministers' Certificate of Recognition.