During the meeting with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Belgium Ms. Francine Chainaye, the President of Latvia thanked for active participation of Belgium in the measures to strengthen collective defence in the Baltic region and he pointed out that Belgium was the first country, which ensured Baltic Air-Policing mission just after Latvia joined NATO.
President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis and the Ambassador of Belgium also discussed the current issue of refugees in the European Union (EU), which was extensively discussed at that moment both in Latvia and in Belgium.
While accrediting the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Mr. Pieter Jan Langenberg, the President of Latvia expressed gratitude for investment of the Netherlands in establishment of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence and he stressed the importance of strategic communications with increasing Russia-generated information pressure and with deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, Syria, etc.
In the context of the Dutch Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2016, the President of Latvia urged to continue working on strengthening of the EU’s competitiveness, further solutions for refugee situation, and more effective and better-targeted policy towards the Eastern Partnership countries. In reply to the latter, the Ambassador pointed out that the Netherlands would follow the progress of the Latvian and Luxembourg Presidency during its presidency, taking also into account the previously mentioned priorities.
During accreditation of the Ambassador of Germany Mr. Rolf Herr Ernst Schütte, the President of Latvia appreciated significant contribution of Germany into strengthening of regional collective defence by deploying its armed forces here. Raimonds Vējonis stressed also German and Latvian cooperation in the field of media and communications and welcomed a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Latvian Television and Deutsche Welle and training of two Latvian journalists in Germany.
Bilateral cooperation was also discussed when Latvia was taking over the German model of dual vocational training. The Ambassador of Germany highlighted that the success story of industrial exports of his country was associated with advanced vocational education and training, and he noted that many German companies were ready to invest abroad, but they needed workforce with engineering technical education.