On 28 June 2024, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže, and the Minister of Education and Science, Anda Čakša, had a discussion with the Rector of the University of Latvia, Gundars Bērziņš, and the Rector of Riga Technical University, Tālis Juhna on the opportunities for strengthening further economic contacts and cooperation in foreign policy. The meeting was also attended by representatives from Riga Stradiņš University and the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies.
Baiba Braže highlighted the opportunities and role of the Foreign Service in advancing Latvia’s economic interests. The Minister said that education was one of the fundamental preconditions for the development and sustainability of the country’s economy.
Baiba Braže emphasised that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is working closely with Latvia’s institutions of higher education – to advise and support them in attracting foreign students and to be informed about the achievements and developments of the academic environment to present those to foreign visitors during official visits. Cooperation with higher education institutions, as well as businesses, is essential for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its daily activities in order both to demonstrate best practice and raise the interest of our foreign visitors during incoming visits, and to provide information to Latvian embassies for their work abroad.
“We appreciate Latvian universities as cooperation partners and we welcome the cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Latvian universities. As a result, we see both an increasing interest from motivated foreign students in taking up studies in Latvia, and a common understanding of Latvia’s potential for knowledge export along with the aim of using it as efficiently as possible,” Baiba Braže emphasised.
Baiba Braže recognised that the “Agreement on good practice in attracting foreign students and ensuring study process” signed in September 2022 between the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, and 19 Latvia’s institutions of higher education had also made a positive impact on attracting motivated students.
Baiba Braže underlined that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was prepared to advise universities on various aspects of international cooperation and to jointly seek optimal solutions on specific issues of work. The Foreign Service has a number of effective instruments that can be used for the advancement of Latvia’s interests internationally – including in the field of education and science – embassies abroad, representations to international organisations, the network of honorary consuls, and cooperation with the representative offices of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia.
