Agriculture, Baltic States – CIS, Cooperation, Latvia, Russia

In Reizniece-Ozola’s words, Agriculture Minister Janis Duklavs (Greens/Farmers) arranged the meeting with Dvorkovich, inviting also the finance minister and Transport Minister Uldis Augulis (Greens/Farmers) to take part in the talks. Reizniece-Ozola said that Duklavs informed the Foreign Ministry about the meeting.

“The agriculture minister wanted to discuss issues of fish companies and their possibilities to resume fish export to Russia. As far as certain sanctions are concerned, rules are clear for both sides, but fish are a special case, because the decision was made outside the whole sanctions framework, so we wanted to figure the possibilities to resume the exports,” the finance minister said.

Reizniece-Ozola backs the agriculture minister’s efforts to help the Latvian producers “without going beyond Latvia’s foreign policy framework”. The finance minister noted that the talks with Dvorkovich passed off correctly without touching on foreign policy issues.

Reizniece-Ozola also stressed that the meeting was not secret as it took place in a restaurant. “Nobody had an intention to hide it from the public,” she said.

She added that the agriculture minister could provide more extensive comments on the meeting’s results.

As reported, Russian Vice Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich during his visit to Riga at the beginning of August held an informal meeting with three ministers representing the Union of Greens and Farmers, according to Skaties.lv Internet portal.

The informal meeting was held in Karavela fish cannery with Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola, Transport Minister Uldis Augulis and Agricultural Minister Janis Duklavs.

Reizniece-Ozola confirmed that such a meeting had been held. She explained that the parties had discussed lifting of sanctions on fish canneries and Incukalns underground gas storage facility.

The portal said that in contrast to the common diplomatic practice, these meetings had not been organized by the Foreign Ministry. Duklavs told the portal that the meeting had been organized by Russian Ambassador to Latvia Alexander Veshnyakov.