Baltic States – CIS, Latvia, Legislation, Russia, Transport

The signing of the documents took place at the Latvian Foreign Ministry in October 2017. The documents were signed by the Co-Chairs of the Demarcation Commission – Irina Mangule, Consul General of Latvia in Saint Petersburg, and Alexey Obukhov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Under the Latvian law, all border demarcation documents have to approved by the Cabinet of Ministers.

With the Latvia-Russia border demarcation documents coming into effect, Latvia and Russia have completed marking their mutual land border. During the demarcation process the countries agreed and mapped their mutual border and installed 648 border signs. After the demarcation documents come into effect, the Latvian and Russian Interior Ministries will start drafting a Latvian-Russian intergovernmental agreement on a border regime.

Foreign Ministry State Secretary Andrejs Pildegovics indicated that Latvia’s border with Russia is also the European Union’s external border and that its demarcation was necessary so that Latvia could meet its obligation as a Schengen country. “It is also necessary for a smooth and unimpeded cross-border traffic of goods and services, dealing with environmental issues and promoting cooperation. “Establishing the border in the long term is also an important signal for building bilateral relations between Latvia and Russia,” Pildegovics added.

The total length of the Latvian-Russian border is 283.6 kilometers.

The Joint Latvia-Russia Demarcation Commission was established under Article 5 of the Treaty between the Republic of Latvia and the Russian Federation on the State Border of Latvia and Russia of 27 March 2007. The first meeting of the Commission took place in Daugavpils on 23 September 2009.