Prime Minister
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On Tuesday 17 January, Prime Minister Māris Kučinskis held a meeting with Jean Asselborn, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg in Rīga.

Latvia and Luxembourg enjoy excellent bilateral relations and good cooperation within the European Union (EU) and NATO framework. The close cooperation between our experts on the EU issues should be particularly highlighted. The Prime Minister stated that he highly appreciates the good and active political dialogue in the format of the Baltic States and Benelux countries.

At the same time, he acknowledged that the economic cooperation still has unexploited potential. Both Latvia and Luxembourg are strong players in the area of information and communication technologies. Latvia sees the potential for cooperation in these sectors by benefiting both countries. In view of the favourable geographical location, Latvia can provide a variety of trade routes between Europe and Central Asia. At present, the investments of Luxembourg in Latvia amount to 188 million euros.

The two parties shared the view that the cooperation between Latvia and Luxembourg should be developed by emphasizing that although these countries have different historical experiences, the citizens of each state are Europeans.

The security issues were also discussed during the meeting, particularly in relation to the NATO presence. M. Kučinskis stressed that NATO's efforts to adapt to the new security situation by strengthening the presence in the Baltic States and Poland are crucial to us. "The large number of participating countries points to the close solidarity between the allies," says M. Kučinskis. He also reiterated that Latvia has a strong commitment to reach 2% of gross domestic product on defence before 2018.

Photos are available here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/valstskanceleja/sets/72157679256357395/

Andrejs Vaivars
Press Secretary to the Prime Minister
Phone: 29228678
E-mail: Andrejs.Vaivars@mk.gov.lv