On 15 September 2020, the State Secretary of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andris Pelšs, took part in the final conference for the 9th phase of the Border Management Programme in Central Asia (BOMCA 9) funded by the European Union.
In his address to the participants, Andris Pelšs noted that Central Asia is one of Latvia’s priorities in its foreign policy. Latvia supports modernisation efforts by the region’s countries through sharing its reform experience in various fields, including border management, strengthening public administration and export capacity, implementation of socioeconomic reforms, education, and other matters.
Latvia’s participation in the EU-funded development cooperation programme in Central Asia, BOMCA, is of special importance. The programme aims at strengthening border management between the Central Asian countries to promote security and cooperation in the region. The State Secretary underlined the contributions and professional performance by the Latvian State Border Guard in running the programme.
BOMCA is one of the EU’s main development cooperation programmes in Central Asia in the field of regional security. It is an EU-funded border management programme comprising five Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – with the aim of improving the overall security situation in the region, supporting trade among the region’s countries, promoting cooperation to curb illegal movement of goods and persons. The 10th phase of the programme is to include Afghanistan for the first time as a beneficiary.