In a meeting with participants of a development cooperation project, “Friendship Bridge Riga–Nizhyn”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže, underlined that Ukraine is Latvia’s priority in development cooperation: more than a half of projects approved in 2024 are related to Ukraine. A special focus is placed on the Chernihiv Region.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže: “For nearly two and a half years, Russia has been waging a full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine day in, day out, incessantly launching attacks on civilians, civilian facilities and strategic infrastructure. Ukraine and its people are not giving up, and besides fighting for their freedom and independence, Ukraine is on its path to membership of the European Union and NATO. Ukraine and every one of its citizens must know that we remember them and fight for them every day in all possible formats and with all available instruments – Latvia is one of Ukraine’s most trustworthy supporters. It is important, in the context of war, not to lose faith and morale, and to continue on the course of European integration that has been adopted. The development cooperation project, “Friendship Bridge Riga-Nizhyn”, is one of the practical instruments of support used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including to provide informative and psycho-emotional support to Ukrainian educators – they have a critical role to play in educating the society and building its resilience.”
This is one of the development cooperation projects in Ukraine, financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The objective of the project is to help Ukrainian people cope with the consequences of the Russian military aggression through fostering long-term bilateral contacts and organizing the visits of Ukrainian representatives to Latvia, including the provision of informative and psycho-emotional support to Ukrainian educators and municipal employees from the city of Nizhyn in Chernihiv Region.
The delegation from Nizhyn has arrived in Latvia this week to participate in the kick-off events of the project, as well as to hear a course of lectures on mentoring for psychological support.
About the “Friendship Bridge Riga–Nizhyn” project
- The project envisages preparing employees of educational institutions and local government authorities for submission of EU projects.
- The project makes it possible to provide essential support to educators of the city of Nizhyn and local government employees through organizing training in the field of eurointegration and EU project development. It also fosters building new contacts between Nizhyn and Riga, as well as exploring the potential for new projects to be implemented in the future.
- The project is coordinated by the Riga Investment and Tourism Agency.
- Total financing for the project amounts to EUR 66 817.55 (EUR 56 197 as a grant; EUR 10 620.55 – as co-financing from the Riga Investment and Tourism Agency).
Latvia’s support to Ukraine
- According to data collected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, total support by Latvia (the state and society) to Ukraine amounts to 1% of GDP, or approximately EUR 770 million (figures for June 2024).
Development cooperation
- Under bilateral development cooperation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is supporting 13 grant projects in Ukraine in 2024 for a total amount of EUR 643 751.69 (36.15% of the total bilateral development cooperation budget of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Projects are carried out in the following areas: psycho-emotional support to women; rehabilitation; microsurgery; financial supervision; forensic expertise and war crimes documentation; the development of small and medium-sized enterprises; European integration and EU law; agriculture; auditing; and human rights.
