On 23 September, in Detroit, President of Latvia Egils Levits met with Chair of American Latvian Association (ALA) Pēteris Blumbergs and board members Elisa Freimane, Tatjana Žagare-Vītiņa, Anita Grīviņa and Diana Kārkliņa. Meeting focused on active work done by ALA and its role in promoting closer ties between Latvia and USA.
President of Latvia praised ALA for its active response to COVID-19. ALA helped Latvian schools move to remote education and organised children summer camps according to applicable safety protocols. ALA board members confirmed that continued operation of camps and Latvian schools was critical for maintaining the spirit of Latvianness among young people and gave them opportunity to meet their peers. ALA also indicated that schools have safely re-opened and board thanks everyone who has supported the schools by sending their kids throughout this difficult period.
Egils Levits thanked ALA for supporting kids in Latvia by buying computers for remote learning during the COVID-19. He also informed ALA about the memorandum of cooperation “Computer for every child” initiated by President Levits.
A separate praise was given to the completion of the Kalamazoo Latvian Evangelical Lutheran United Church major reconstruction project.
Higher education reform in Latvia, strengthening of the judicial system and economic recovery were also discussed during the meeting.
Other issues included Latvia’s participation in the Three Seas Initiative, use of migrants by Belarus to launch hybrid attacks on the Baltic borders and other current challenges.
