Representatives of the mass media are invited to attend a press conference on the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s Spring Session which will be held in Riga on 28 May – 1 June.

The press conference will be attended by Mr. Gundars Daudze, Speaker of the Saeima, and Mrs. Vaira Paegle, head of the Latvian delegation to the NATO PA.

The press conference will be held on 11 February at 10:30 at the Guest Room of the Saeima on Jēkaba iela 11.

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The Spring Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (PA) will be held in the capital of Latvia, Riga, from 28 May to 1 June 2010. 

More than 700 participants from NATO member states, associate member states and observer countries are invited to attend the Spring Session of the NATO PA. During the Session, parliamentarians will be addressed by numerous distinguished experts and public officials, including Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Secretary General of NATO.

During the NATO PA Spring Session in Riga, it is planned to address a wide variety of topics. Parliamentarians from the NATO member states, together with experts, will discuss the unity of the Alliance, the role of NATO with regard to maritime safety and cooperation between NATO and the EU on this issue.

Taking the floor in the debates at the Assembly’s Autumn Session, which is taking place from 13 to 17 November in Edinburgh (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Vaira Paegle, head of the Latvian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, expressed doubts about Europe’s new security architecture proposed by Russia.

During the debates, V. Paegle, head of the Latvian delegation, posed the following questions: “How is Russia’s desire to develop a new pacifistic security initiative in Europe compatible with statements by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a member of the Russian State Duma, that the Baltic regions inhabited by people of Russian nationality should be annexed to Russia? How is that compatible with the large-scale Russia-Belarus military exercises that were recently held near the borders of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland? How is that compatible with the decision adopted by the Russian State Duma about the possibility of using military force to protect its citizens abroad?”

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.