Ambassador presents his credentials to President of Latvia HE Mr. Valdis Zatlers, on 7th December 2010
7 December, 2010
HE Mr. Ashok Sajjanhar, on 7th December, 2010 presented his Credentials as Ambassador of India to Latvia to President of Latvia HE. Mr. Valdis Zatlers. During the visit to Riga Ambassador also had meetings with Speaker Saeima, Minister of Economics, Minister of Health, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Saeima, State Secretary in Latvian Foreign Office, and Head of Economic & Bilateral Relations Directorate, Latvian Foreign Office. In the meetings the two sides discussed and expressed satisfaction at the excellent status of bilateral relations between the two countries. During the visit Ambassador also met the Indian community resident in Latvia.
During the meeting with HE. Mr. Valdis Zatlers the two sides expressed satisfaction at the traditionally close relations between India, the world’s largest democracy, and Latvia, one of the young independent democracies. Since Latvia’s Independence in 1991, the bilateral relations have grown steadily and there is great potential for forging closer contacts in almost all areas of cooperation.
During the visit of Mr. Artis Kampars, Hon’ble Economics Minister of Latvia to India in February, 2010 a bilateral Agreement on Promotion and Protection of Investment was signed and; also a Cooperation Agreement between Indo Baltic Federation of Culture and Commerce (IBFCC), Latvia with Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), India was signed. In this context, it was agreed that the two sides should further build on the favourable environment created by these two Agreements.
Despite the economic crisis faced by Latvia, the total bilateral trade has increased. There has been a significant jump in Latvian exports to India in 2009-2010 to US$ 154.94 million compared to US$ 113.987 million in 2008-2009. Whereas India’s exports to Latvia have grown from US$ 44.93 million in 2008-2009 to US$ 47.17 million in 2009-2010.
In his meetings, the two sides also discussed the Latvian proposal to celebrate the 150th Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore in 2011. Ambassador assured all possible help to Latvian side in commemoration of this event in Latvia.
