Baltic States – CIS, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Security

Pieter Jan Langenberg and Edgars Rinkevics. Riga, 24.08.2015. Photo: flickr.com

The Latvian foreign minister congratulated the Ambassador on his posting in Latvia which could be rather intense taking considering the upcoming Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2016.

During the meeting, both sides expressed their appreciation at the good cooperation that has developed between Latvia and the Netherlands. The Latvian foreign minister expressed gratitude for the contributions made by the Netherlands in strengthening collective defense measures including to NATO’s Baltic air policing mission and for the NATO Center of Excellence for Strategic Communications in Riga, and he invited Bert Koenders, the Dutch Foreign Minister to visit Latvia.

Rinkevics observed that the current main directions of work planned for the Dutch EU Presidency will be continuing and following up on Latvian EU Presidency priorities. It was also during Latvia’s EU Presidency that questions of terrorism and migration came into the foreground.

''Internal and external security must go hand in hand, and we hope that the Dutch Presidency will successfully address this question,'' he said. The minister noted that migration is one of the biggest challenges and said that such questions ought to be solved by dealing with them at the level of their root causes otherwise one is left fighting the consequences.

Speaking of the regional security situation, Minister Rinkevics recognized the importance of bringing stability to Ukraine and the implementation of the Minsk agreements. And in the context of the Eastern Partnership, the question of visa liberalization is also an important matter, especially for Georgia and Ukraine.

Pieter Jan Langenberg began work at Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1979. He has held various positions since then at the embassies in Budapest, Washington, Canberra, Dublin, Brussels, and at the Permanent Mission of the Netherlands to the European Union, as well as working at the Foreign Ministry’s UN Disarmament Department and as Head of Section in the Department of European Integration. From 2009 till 2013, he was the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Georgia and Armenia. Before coming to Latvia, Pieter Jan Langenberg was Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Slovenia.