Other events in Baltic States

The Balts Award of the Foreign Ministries of Latvia and Lithuania has been presented to Professor Alvydas Butkus, LETA was told at the Latvian Foreign Ministry. 

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics (New Unity) on a working visit to Vilnius today met with his Lithuanian colleague Linas Linkevicius to present the ministries' award. 

This year's Balt Award was bestowed on Professor Butkus  in recognition of his invaluable contribution to the preservation of the Balts’ heritage and the strengthening of relations between the Latvia and Lithuania.

At the presentation of the Balts Award, Rinkevics thanked Butkus for the Latvian-Lithuanian dictionary he had compiled. The dictionary is freely accessible online and contains 43,000 words. The professor has also established a Latvian Studies Center at the Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas and been at its helm for more than 20 years.

The monetary value of the award is EUR 3,000, co-funded by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Latvia and Lithuania.

The Balts Award was bestowed by the Latvian and Lithuanian Foreign Ministries for the second time. Its aim is to recognize the excellence and achievements related to individual contributions and accomplishments in the promotion of Latvian-Lithuanian and Lithuanian-Latvian translations, teaching and enhancing the use of the Latvian and Lithuanian languages, research on the Latvian and Lithuanian tangible and intangible cultural and historical heritage, as well as investigative journalism on Latvian and Lithuanian history, culture and tourism.

The idea of the Balts Award was first put forward by the Latvian Foreign Minister and his Lithuanian counterpart on Balts Unity Day, September 22, 2017. In accordance with the Balts Award competition rules, the annual award-giving ceremony is to be organised alternately by Latvia and Lithuania.