The Minister of Foreign Affairs Baiba Braže is advancing the nomination of Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Political Director Andžejs Viļumsons – for approval by the Cabinet as State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Andžejs Viļumsons has been taking up his current post since September 2021.
“Andžejs Viļumsons has proven himself as an experienced professional. By his long-standing work in the Foreign Service, he has contributed significantly to Latvia’s security policy and foreign policy. Respected by the Foreign Ministry staff, he is a colleague with high personal integrity who has multi-faceted skills and knowledge,” Baiba Braže substantiates her decision.
Andžejs Viļumsons has a long-lasting work experience in the diplomatic and consular service of representing national interests in international institutions, he has good managerial skills, well-developed analytical capacity and negotiation expertise. Andžejs Viļumsons is fluent in English, German, Russian, and French.
Andžejs Viļumsons joined the Latvian Foreign Service in 1996. He worked in the Security Policy Division, to later become Head of the NATO Division. Having been posted as First Secretary to the Latvian Embassy in the United States, he worked with security matters at the time when Latvia began the process of accession to NATO. Subsequently Andžejs Viļumsons assumed the positions of Director of the Security Policy Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Latvia to the European Union also representing the country in the Political and Security Committee. During his professional career, Andžejs Viļumsons has also served as Director of the First Department of Bilateral Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as Director of the Defence Policy and Planning Department at the Ministry of Defence.
Former State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andris Pelšs, who was approved for that position on 10 July 2018 and has made a substantial contribution to the development of the Foreign Service, will continue working in the Foreign Service in an ambassadorial posting.
Under Section 37, paragraphs 1 and 3 of the State Civil service Law, in order to ensure good administration, especially the efficient fulfilment of the tasks of the civil service and the public trust in the civil service, as well as to promote an increase in the qualifications of a civil servant, a civil servant may, without the announcement of open candidate competition and justifying the admissibility and usefulness of the transfer, be transferred to any other civil servant position for a definite or an indefinite term, in the same or another institution, while evaluating the civil servant’s point of view.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will propose that this matter be included in the agenda of the Cabinet meeting on 16 July.