Baltic States – CIS, Good for Business, Latvia, Legislation, Russia, Transport

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Augulis underlined that Russia has always been an economically important partner of Latvia. “Even though the meeting with the Russian partners in the format of the intergovernmental commission is taking place after a four-year break, the two countries have been busily cooperating in a number of areas. Practical cooperation has been going on in areas like border control, transport, migration, culture, etc.,” the Latvian minister said.

During the meeting, the Latvian-Russian intergovernmental commission discussed a number of issues and reached agreement on several of them. In Augulis’ words, the first agreement was reached on a development of trade and economic cooperation. Transport and transit was another sphere discussed by the intergovernmental panel. “In this sphere, everything has been developing well, given the growing cargo transportation by road,” the transport minister said.

The parties agreed at the meeting to ensure interrupted freight transportation between Latvia and Russia. There is also a plan to sign an agreement on direct international rail freight deliveries between Latvia and Russia. Augulis said that the Latvian side has already approved the agreement and is ready to sign it as soon as Russia is ready to do the same.

The intergovernmental commission also agreed to strengthen cooperation in the transportation of container cargos from China to Europe, using Russian and Latvian infrastructure. Augulis called on Russia to use Latvian ports more actively for cargo shipping operations.

The talks also dealt with cross-border cooperation, as well as a plan to organize a meeting of Latvian and Russian historians by the end of this year to debate historical issues important to the two countries.

Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov, the Russian co-chairman of the intergovernmental commission’s meeting, told reporters after the talks that the minutes of today’s meeting provided an answer to the question about the state of Latvian-Russian cooperation on economic and social issues.

“Trade statistics suggest of a resumption and further development of the two countries’ economic relations. Furthermore, in

The Latvian-Russian intergovernmental commission is a format of negotiations to discuss practical cooperation issues. There are four work groups planned for the meeting – in economic cooperation, regional cooperation, transport issues and culture cooperation.

The previous meeting was held in November 2013 in Moscow. Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics (Unity) and Russian officials signed several intergovernmental cooperation agreements after these talks.