On 22 September 2021, during the high-level week of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan, Ruslan Kazakbaev, for a discussion on bilateral relations between the two countries, a dialogue between the European Union and Kyrgyzstan, and developments in Afghanistan.
Referring to the state of play in Afghanistan, the Ministers agreed that the stability and sustainable development of the Central Asian region is directly related to the situation evolving in Afghanistan. The Latvian Foreign Minister underlined that Latvia, being a member state of the EU and NATO, seeks to help the Afghans who have cooperated with the EU and NATO and are now in danger. The EU is also interested in building a dialogue with the Central Asian countries and shaping a uniform approach to promoting stability in Afghanistan. We are happy to see the Central Asian region on the EU’s active agenda, Edgars Rinkēvičs noted, adding that the EU supports the socio-economic reforms in the Central Asian countries with a view to strengthening their economic development and modernisation.
Edgars Rinkēvičs confirmed that Latvia would continue to support reforms in Kyrgyzstan by sharing its reform experience through development cooperation projects. The Latvian Foreign Minister said that in partnership with other donors, Latvia will further invest in Kyrgyzstan’s young professionals by supporting their participation in the European Law and Economics programme at Riga Graduate School of Law. He pointed out that since 2014 the course has already been completed by 27 students from Kyrgyzstan.
Both the Ministers were unanimous that opportunities should be sought for promoting economic cooperation between Latvia and Kyrgyzstan with the focus on education and science, and transport and logistics.