On 1 October 2021, in an official ceremony in Riga Castle, the President of Latvia, Egils Levits, presented credentials to the next Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Latvia to the Republic of Poland, Juris Poikāns.
Juris Poikāns began his career with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1996. He has worked at the Russia Division, the International Organisations and Human Rights Division, headed the Baltic, Nordic and Regional Cooperation Division and held the post of the Deputy Political Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Juris Poikāns has been posted to the Latvian Embassies in Russia, Belarus and the U.S. He has been Ambassador of Latvia to Slovenia, non-resident Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova as well as Ambassador-at-Large for Eastern Partnership. In 2015, Juris Poikāns was posted as Ambassador to Ukraine.
Juris Poikāns holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Sciences and a Master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Latvia. He has completed the Diplomatic Studies Programme at Oxford University, as well as taking professional development courses at Umeå University in Sweden, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, and the Foreign Service Academy in Pakistan. The Ambassador speaks English, Russian and Ukrainian and has a basic knowledge of Slovenian and French.
In his ambassadorial post, Juris Poikāns is succeeding Edgars Bondars, who had been representing Latvia’s interests in Poland since 2017.