On 23 August 2023, the Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže, met with the Chair of the Standing Committee on National Defence at the House of Commons of Canada, John McKay, and representatives from the Committee on National Defence. During the meeting, the participants discussed cooperation between Latvia and Canada on the strengthening of security in the Baltic region and across the Euro-Atlantic space, support to Ukraine, topics on the global agenda, and reinforcing bilateral cooperation. The officials underlined that Latvia and Canada were like-minded countries linked by shared values.
Baiba Braže thanked Canada for its inestimable contribution to Latvia’s security; she highlighted in particular the expansion of NATO presence and progress towards the establishment of a combat-ready brigade. Canada is the framework nation in the NATO enhanced Forward Presence battlegroup in Latvia.
The officials then had a discussion on the war waged by Russia against Ukraine. Baiba Braže commended Canada’s steadfast stance concerning the Russian aggression, and the meaningful political, humanitarian and financial support provided by Canada to Ukraine. The officials agreed that not only should assistance to Ukraine be continued, but also Russia should be held to account for its crimes; in addition, broad involvement of the international community should be ensured in support of Ukraine and to safeguard international order.
As part of their visit, the delegation headed by John McKay is to have meetings with the Speaker of the Saeima (Latvian Parliament), Edvards Smiltēns, the Chair of the Defence, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee at the Saeima, Raimonds Bergmanis, the Minister of Defence, Ināra Mūrniece, and the Director of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, Jānis Sārts.
