Foreign Minister Aivis Ronis: US involvement in Latvia is an example for other countries
By admin at 2 August, 2010, 6:15 pm
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On 9 June, Foreign Minister Aivis Ronis and the U.S. Ambassador to Latvia, Judith Garber, took part in a meeting for entrepreneurs and participants from the foreign diplomatic corps, entitled The Economic Relations between Latvia and the USA, held by the United States Chamber of Commerce.
“The membership of Latvia in NATO and strategic partnership with the United States of America is a contribution to the security of strategic resources in Latvia and an increase in their value,” Aivis Ronis pointed out. At the same time, the Foreign Minister noted that cooperation in security policy is but one of the dimensions of co-operation, and emphasised also a dialogue in the energy sector, as well as trade liberalisation, strengthening economic contacts and attracting the U.S. investments, in particular, in the field of transport, transit and logistics, as well as the financial sector. Minister Ronis and Ambassador Garber shared an opinion that the transit through Latvia’s ports of non-military cargo for the U.S. forces in Afghanistan is an excellent proof of mutual co-operation with a great potential, including the procurement of Latvian goods for the needs of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.
“Under the global financial crisis, the U.S. involvement in Latvia is an example for other countries. At a high political level, also during the recent visit by Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis to Washington, the U.S. has expressed its solidarity with the Government of Latvia and its economic recovery measures. Latvia would welcome such solidarity and involvement in the restoration of Latvia’s economic competitiveness from Sweden and its Prime Minister, given, in particular, that the Swedish banks had once declared that Latvia’s market was an extension of Sweden’s own domestic market. In the 17th century, Karl XII called Riga a second capital of Sweden, but then abandoned the city. The Swedish Prime Minister, too, should visit ‘his second home’, before it is taken over by somebody else. The Baltic states is a region of particular importance from a geopolitical aspect,” Minister Ronis noted.
The minister indicated that also Latvian politicians in their statements voice an increasing criticism to the policy of the Swedish banks in Latvia. The minister expressed an opinion that following the elections, an establishment should be supported of a joint commission of the Latvian Saeima and the Swedish Riksdag, in order to evaluate the actions of the financial sector regulators in Latvia and in Sweden before 2008. The commission would play an important role in future and facilitate a better regulated environment for the operations of the banking sector.
When speaking about the economic situation in Latvia, the U.S. Ambassador Judith Garber emphasised in her address that the Government of Latvia deserved enormous praise for the measures it had succeeded to put in place in order to restore an overall economic competitiveness. In the U.S. Ambassador’s opinion, “Latvia is an outstanding example in the fight with economic recession”.
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