Members of the Saeima will participate in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s (NATO PA) Autumn Session, which will take place from 13 to 17 November in the city of Edinburgh, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

At the meeting of parliamentarians of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s member states, our country will be represented by Vaira Paegle, head of the Latvian delegation to the NATO PA, and Dzintars Rasnačs and Visvaldis Lācis, permanent members of the delegation.

A wide range of issues will be discussed at the NATO PA Autumn Session in Edinburgh. Parliamentarians will discuss a possible change in the Alliance’s strategy in Afghanistan, NATO-Russia relations, as well as the role of Central Asian countries in transatlantic energy security.

Parliamentarians will also discuss the impact of the global financial crisis upon the national economy of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s member states; the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and cyber security problems.

During the Edinburgh Session, Vaira Paegle, head of the Latvian delegation to the NATO PA, will present Latvia as the country which will organise the next NATO PA Session in spring 2010 in Riga. The decision about holding the 2010 Spring Session in Riga was adopted in 2005.

At present, Latvia is one of the last member states in which the Session has not yet been held. Lithuania organised the NATO PA Session in 2001, and Estonia will do so in 2012.

V. Paegle states that during the Session she will also address parliamentarians of the European Union’s (EU) member states about the candidacy of Vaira Vike-Freiberga for the President of the Council of the European Union, thus taking advantage of the fact that the NATO PA will be attended by MPs from all EU member states. “Along with issues on the official agenda, I will talk with parliamentarians of the European Union’s member states and ask them to support the candidacy of Vaira Vike-Freiberga for the President of the European Union”, said V. Paegle.

NATO PA sessions take place twice a year – in spring and autumn. Sessions are important events in this international organisation, and all NATO member states take turns in organising them.

The NATO Parliamentary Assembly is a consultative inter-parliamentary organisation founded in 1955 which unites parliamentarians from 28 member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Delegates from NATO associate member states, representatives of the European Parliament, as well as parliamentary observers from several non-NATO countries also participate in the Assembly’s work.

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