During the Riga Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (PA), presidential candidates of this interparliamentary organisation will be nominated.  

NATO PA presidential candidates must be nominated in writing by three or more members or alternate members of NATO PA delegations. Candidates must be members or alternate members of the PA. They are approved by the NATO PA Standing Committee.

The President shall be elected for a year’s term by member state delegations during the annual session in autumn. The President may be re-elected for one more year.

Currently, more than 530 persons – parliamentarians of the NATO PA member states and associate member states and their accompanying persons – have applied for participation in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s (PA) 2010 Spring Session in Riga.

The NATO PA’s Spring Session will be attended by parliamentarians from 28 NATO member states, as well as from 14 associate member states of the NATO PA – Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine. Parliamentarians of these 14 countries will participate in the Session’s work without voting rights.

NATO PA’s regional partner and Mediterranean associate member delegations, representatives of the European Parliament, as well as parliamentary observers, are expected to arrive in Riga. Parliamentarians from Afghanistan will also participate in this Session.

Parliamentarians from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Assembly of WEU (the European Security and Defence Assembly) are invited to take part in the Session.

During the first week of March, the delegation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s (PA) International Secretariat visited Latvia to familiarise itself with the progress in preparing for the NATO PA’s Session which is expected to take place in Riga at the end of May.

At the end of the working visit, representatives of the delegation praised the work that the organisers have accomplished so far in preparing for the Session, and they acknowledged that the work which has been done so far leaves a good impression and creates confidence that Latvia will be able to manage the course of the Session in compliance with all international requirements. 

On Tuesday, 24 February, Gundars Daudze, Speaker of the Saeima, during his meeting with Audronius Ažubalis, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, discussed, along with other issues, topicalities of the upcoming NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s Spring Session in Riga.

In discussing the agenda of the upcoming NATO PA’s Spring Session, the Saeima Speaker pointed out that the Riga Session intends to discuss topical NATO issues, such as drafting of the NATO Strategic Concept. The Spring Session in Riga will also address other important issues of international security – relations between the Alliance and Iran and Russia, as well as the NATO-led military operation in Afghanistan.

During the discussion, Vaira Paegle, Head of the Latvian delegation to NATO PA, emphasised that the Session should also turn its attention to France’s plans to sell to Russia the ultra-modern Mistral-class helicopter carriers.