EU – Baltic States, Latvia

In the foreign ministers' discussion, Rinkevics underlined that the Eastern Partnership should remain one of the EU's foreign policy priorities also in the new EU institutional cycle. "Over the past decade, the Eastern Partnership has proven itself as a very successful format for the EU's cooperation with the Eastern Partnership countries. Currently, the Eastern Partnership is well on track – with clear objectives and deliverables to be implemented by 2020; however, a strategic approach to the future political objectives of the Eastern Partnership is needed. We want to see stable, rapidly progressing and secure EU neighbors to the East, and therefore it is time to start working on the objectives and tasks for post-2020 cooperation,"

Rinkevics also noted that the EU had to be ready to identify specific sectors where the EU would be prepared to deepen its cooperation with the Eastern Partnership countries. "Latvia sees the potential areas in trade and people-to-people contacts, as well as the energy, digital and telecommunication sectors," the Minister pointed out. At the same time, Rinkevics expressed hope that support from the EU would make it possible to strengthen the rule of law, media literacy and strategic communications, as well as achieving significant progress in the implementation of the justice sector, economic and public administration reforms in the Eastern Partnership countries.