From 2 November 2022, Dr. sc. pol. Gunda Reire has taken up post as Parliamentary Secretary at the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Prior to the present appointment, Gunda Reire was Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for strategic communication, democracy and public diplomacy. Her vast professional experience includes the positions of Adviser to several ministers, Chief of Staff of the Speaker’s Office at the Parliament of the Republic Latvia (Saeima) and the Office of the Minister of Education, as well as Deputy Chairperson of the Strategic Analysis Commission Under the Auspices of the President of Latvia.
Her research interests include multilateral international cooperation, topics concerning the United Nations and relations with Russia. Gunda Reire is the author of a number of scientific publications on the United Nations, Latvia’s foreign policy, including Latvia’s work in UN bodies and Latvia-Russia relations, and she has been the editor of several collections of research papers.
Gunda Reire is a visiting lecturer at the Riga Graduate School of Law and Rīga Stradiņš University, as well as Director of the Center of International Studies (CIS). She has been Residing Fulbright Research Fellow at John Hopkins University, SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations in Washington, D.C., USA.
Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, who held the post of Parliamentary Secretary until now, has been elected to the 14th Saeima and appointed as its Deputy Speaker. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edgars Rinkēvičs, is offering his gratitude to Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica for her work as Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in representing Latvia’s interests globally and in Europe. Let me thank Zanda, he said, for her longstanding good cooperation in the Foreign Ministry, and wish her every success with her duties in her senior position as Deputy Speaker of our Parliament.