The discussion, which is scheduled to start at 14:30, aims to facilitate open and balanced discussions among the populations of the Baltic States on important topics concerning the future of NATO. The discussion will gather Ministers of Defence of the Baltic States, NATO PA delegates and prominent security experts.

Two sessions will take place during the discussion. The first session, moderated by Dr. Andres Kasekamp, Director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, will focus on the NATO’s new Strategic Concept. The following speakers will share their views: Dr. Karl A. Lamers, President of the Atlantic Treaty Association and Chairman of the Political Committee of the NATO PA, Mr. Toms Baumanis, LATO Chairman of the Board, Mr. Sven Mikser, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament of Estonia and Mr. Petras Austrevicius, Deputy Chairman of the Committee of European Affairs of the Lithuanian Seimas.

The second session entitled “Afghanistan – NATO’s solidarity test” will gather Minister of Defence of Latvia, Mr. Imants Lieģis, Minister of Defence of Estonia Mr. Jaak Aaviksoo, Minister of Defence of Lithuania, Ms. Rasa Juknevičienė, former State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany and Professor at the University of Dortmund Dr. Christoph Zöpel, and Afghan Ambassador to Nordic countries, Amb. Manizha Bakhtari. The session will be moderated by Dr. Atis Lejiņš, Honorary Director of the Latvian Institute of International Affairs.

The discussion is free to attend. To participate, please register via phone (+371) 67322883 or e-mail lato@lato.lv, indicating name, surname and institution/organisation. The deadline for registration is May 31, 16:00 (local time).

The organisers ensure transportation to the venue of the event and back to the Riga city centre.

To the International Exhibition Centre „Kipsala”:

Departure place: Satekles str. (near Stacijas square)
Departure time: 13:10, 14:00

To the City centre:

Departure place: International Exhibition Centre „Kipsala”
Departure time: 18:30

The organisation of the discussion is supported by NATO, the U.S. Embassy in Riga and the Baltic to Black Sea Alliance.

PROGRAMME

During the discussion Juris Ozoliņš introduced the audience with such aspects of energy security as the importance of infrastructure in securing of energy supplies, the importance of development of sources of renewable energy, interconnection between energy transportation and energy security etc. The audience touched such issues as the necessity to introduce new energy solutions in Latvia, making corrections in energy policy, which defines the development of this sector; the importance of the education system and development of innovations in the energy sector; introduction of the quota system in the energy market and other issues.

Juris Ozolins graduated from Riga Technical University specializing in Power Systems, Power Plants and Networks. For more than 25 years of his professional life he has been involved with the Latvian Power Company and holding positions in Latvian Government offices. He was Minister for Energy in 1994/95 and later Energy Advisor to Prime Minister of Latvia. Since 2000 he has worked as a freelance consultant in various national and international energy projects. Juris was team leader on development the Latvian Grid Code and chaired the Forum of Baltic Transmission System Operators and Regulators which marked the turning point for the Baltic Electricity Market. His experience was utilized in Balkan countries and Moldova. Recently he completed his mission as Legal Expert in Energy, Environment, Transport and Telecommunications for Ukrainian-European Policy and Legal Advice Center sponsored by EU. He assisted in finding solutions to the Ukrainian – Russian “Gas Wars”. Since 2005 Juris has been Special Advisor to European Commission in Cabinet of Energy Commissioner Mr. Andris Piebalgs. His duty in this position expires when new Commission took offices.

The project “Talks on Security and Foreign Policy” is supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

On April 9, 2010 LATO in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia organised NATO Summit simulation game 2010. Youngsters, who represented Turkey, Albania and Czech Republic, took the first three places. The winners – Diāna Potjomkina, Ilze Neimane (Riga Stradiņš University), Jānis Supe, Aleksandrs Potaičuks (University of Latvia), Mārtiņs Vargulis, Roberts Fedosejevs (Riga Stradiņš University) – has been awarded with a trip to NATO HQ, Brussels. The 4th, 5th and 6th places were won by youngsters who represented Luxembourg, United States of America and Spain – Igors Ivanovs, Artūrs Kvesko (University of Latvia), Natālija Knaidele (Riga Technical University), Edgars Engīzers (University of Latvia), Krišjānis Ozols (Riga Stradiņš University), Mārtiņš Bratuškins (Riga Technical University). They were awarded with valuable books on diplomacy, security and foreign policy

This is the second year LATO organises NATO Summit simulation game for Latvian youngsters. During the game 28 teams who represented heads of NATO member states had to agree on a text of the NATO New Strategic Concept. The performance of participants was evaluated by a jury composed by representatives of LATO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence of Latvia. In addition three special advisors from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were assigned to assist and advise the participants.

The Simulation game started with presentations of positions on the New Strategic Concept by representatives of NATO member states. Participants had three weeks to elaborate positions of their represented NATO member states. In order to assist with this process, LATO organised briefings in the embassies as well as at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the midst of the game the session was interrupted by breaking news. The head of states were briefed about a cyber attack on the bank systems of five NATO member states. Terrorists requested the immediate withdrawal of NATO armed forces from Afghanistan in order to stop the attack. Youngsters dealt with the crisis in one hour and agreed on a joint statement, where NATO member states condemned the cyber attack organised by a terrorist group and agreed on measures to deal with the consequences of the crisis and to prevent such crisis situations in future.

During the next phase of the game all the teams were divided in four groups and given a task to elaborate a joint position on the declaration project, defining goals and tasks of the Alliance, its capacity and operations, Alliance’s approach towards disarmament and nuclear weapons as well as Alliance’s position towards enlargement and cooperation with partner countries.

In addition participants of the game had a chance to meet three Baltic Foreign ministers, who the same day held a consultation in Riga on the NATO New Strategic Concept. Youngsters were given an opportunity to ask their interested questions to the ministers during the final press conference.

After the simulation game was over, its winner shared their views and impressions on the game, its preparatory process and importance:

„I advise everyone to take part in the Simulation game next year, especially those who have a professional interest in international relations, diplomacy and security issues. I consider that the preparatory process was not less important than the simulation game itself, where in a short period of time we had make an agreement on several important issues. I was also very satisfied to have an opportunity to be briefed by diplomats of a represented country.”

Diāna Potjomkina, Representative of Turkey (1st place)

“Participation in the Simulation game had an invaluable impact on the development of my career. I invite to involve last year’s winners in the organisation of the next year’s simulation game. The game has allowed me to understand the dual nature of the democratic decision-making process. On the one hand, it allows everyone to express its position, but, from the other hand, this process is more time-consuming, and it is not clear whether someone really cares about your position among thousand others.”

Aleksandrs Potaičuks, Representative of Albania (2nd place)

In order to take part in the simulation game, applicants should be 18-26 years old, have good communication skills in Latvian and find a partner to make a team. The application procedure started on February 11, 2010. All the applicants were required to write an analytical essay on the theme „A New NATO Strategic Concept: Latvian Perspective” and send it till March 8, 2010 4:00 PM to the following addressees: arvils@lato.lv and laura.kellija@mfa.gov.lv. The organisers received more than 30 essay, which were evaluated by a special commission made of representatives of LATO, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence. Authors of 28 best essays were selected to take part in the simulation game.

On March 17 participants were invited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to lot their represented countries. The first six teams, which gained the highest score, had an opportunity to be the first to choose. Others defined their countries according to the drawing procedure.

NATO Summit simulation game is supported by the Ministry of Defence of Latvia, NATO Public Diplomacy Division and Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

For more information, please, contact Mr. Arvils Zelrins, LATO project manager - arvils@lato.lv

The discussion, which is scheduled to start at 13:00, will be devoted to the situation in Ukraine after the presidential elections as well its foreign policy orientation – Eastern or Western direction. The discussion will gather political analysts and experts from Latvia, Ukraine and abroad, including advisor to the Ukraine’s presidential candidate Yuliya Tomoshenko during her election campaign Mr. Taras Berezovets.

Two sessions will take place during the discussion. The first session, moderated by the Chairman of the Baltic to Black Sea Alliance Ms. Sarmīte Ēlerte, will focus on the internal policy aspects. The following speakers will share their views: Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation in Ukraine Dr. Yevhen Bystrytsky, Director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Ukraine Mr. Nico Lange, spin doctor and director of Ukrainian PR group Polittech Mr. Taras Berezovets and the public representative of Investment and Development Agency of Latvia in Ukraine Mr. Jefim Schabad.

The second session will focus on the foreign policy choices between East and West and will be moderated by the LATO Board member and the Director of Latvian Institute of International Affairs Dr. Andris Sprūds. Speakers will include the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Mr. Andris Teikmanis, Professor of Political Science and Founding Director of the School for Policy Analysis at the University of ‘Kyiv-Mohyla Academy’ Dr. Olexiy Haran, and Senior Fellow at the Jamestown Foundation Mr. Vladimir Socor.

Venue of the discussion is hotel ‘Bergs’, Glass Hall on the 6th floor, Elizabetes street 83/85, Riga. This discussion is organized with the financial support of the Soros Foundation – Latvia and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, in cooperation with  the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia.

Programme of the discussion can be downloaded here.

The discussion will involve three members of the Group of Experts on drafting of NATO’s New Strategic concept, who will be on a consultation visit in Riga: Amb. Aivis Ronis (Latvia), Amb. Marie Gervais-Vidricaire (Canada) and Amb. Dr Hans-Friedrich von Ploetz (Germany). Discussion will feature also such Latvian experts as Dr. Daina Bleiere, Associated professor at the Political Science Department, European Studies Faculty, Rīga Stradiņš University, and Dr. Toms Rostoks, Associated professor at the Political Science Department, Faculty of Social Science, University of Latvia. The discussion will be moderated by Amb. Ojārs Kalniņš, Vice-Chairman of the Latvian Transatlantic organisation.

In April 2009 at the NATO Strasbourg/Kehl Summit a decision was adopted to develop a new NATO Strategic Concept. The Strategic Concept is the core NATO document, which describes the fundamental tasks of the Alliance. For the first time Latvia takes part in drafting of such an important document of NATO since it has joined the Alliance in 2004. The aim of the drafting process is to consolidate and achieve a common understanding among the Allies on the current and future security challenges and how the Alliance should respond to them.

The aim of the public discussion is to involve wider public into the debates on a new NATO Strategic Concept as well as to facilitate better understanding about NATO, particularly among young generation.

The discussion is open and everyone is welcomed to take part!

For more details, please, contact Mr. Arvils Zeltiņš, LATO project manager – arvils@lato.lv

In his introductory speech, Amb. J.Eichmanis touched upon such issues as work of Latvia’s Permanent Mission to NATO, decision-making process at NATO, current issues of NATO’s agenda, including the drafting process of NATO’s New Strategic Concept and NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.

The discussion was organised in the framework of the discussion series „Talk on Security and Foreign Policy”, whose aim is to facilitate a dialogue between policy makers and society at large. Therefore more time was left for questions, comments and discussions. Participants of the discussion showed their interests in such topics as Latvia’s membership in NATO (What and how we can influence?), sale of French warship „Mistral” to NATO and security of the Baltic States, NATO-Russia relations, Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty and NATO’s New Strategic Concept, NATO’s Enlargement process, energy security on NATO’s agenda, the importance of the Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty and economic threats, skepticism on NATO’s readiness to defend Latvian among Latvian society, NATO structural reforms, Russia’s new military doctrine and nuclear weapons, the future of NATO’s involvement into Afghanistan etc.

In the end Ambassador invited young people to be more active and consider a possibility to advance their career in the Foreign Service.

Next round of discussions will take place in April.

The project “Talks on Security and Foreign Policy” is supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

For more information, please, contact Ms. Irina Ivaskina, LATO project manager – irina@lato.lv, (+371) 67322883