International foreign policy experts will gather at the Conference on foreign and defence policy organised by the Saeima. This Interparliamentary Conference for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy held in Riga on 5–6 March is one of the six interparliamentary events organised by the Saeima within the framework of the parliamentary dimension of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU.
“In order for the parliamentary discussions to be comprehensive, besides high officials such as Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Alexander Vershbow, Deputy Secretary General of NATO, the conference will be attended by a number of international foreign policy experts, including James Sherr, a renowned expert on Russia at the Royal Institute of International Affairs – Chatham House,” stated Ojārs Ēriks Kalniņš, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, right before the event.
Chairman Kalniņš also indicated that this week of the Latvian Presidency will pass under the sign of foreign policy – this Conference will gather more than 300 parliamentarians from the EU member states, high officials from the EU and NATO, as well as international foreign policy experts; concurrently, Riga will host an informal meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers, or the so-called Gimnich.
The Conference will be attended by a number of international foreign policy experts, including Kadri Liik, Senior Policy Fellow of the European Council on Foreign Relations; Eka Tkeshelashvili, President of the Georgian Institute for Strategic Studies; James Sherr, Associate Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme of the Royal Institute of International Affairs – Chatham House; as well as Oleksiy Melnyk, Co-Director of the Foreign Relations and International Security Programmes at the Razumkov’s Centre of Ukraine.
Experts will share their vision on issues such as redefining the Eastern Partnership before the Riga Summit, the hybrid war as a new security challenge for Europe, the European response to the instability and threats in the southern Mediterranean and the Middle East, as well as challenges and solutions for the EU Battlegroup deployment within existing legal framework.
The participants will also be addressed by Latvian experts in foreign policy, including, Andris Sprūds, Director of the Latvian Institute of International Affairs; Andis Kudors, Executive Director of the Centre for East European Policy Studies; and Nora Vanaga, Researcher of the Centre for Security and Strategic Research of the National Defence Academy of Latvia.
A live stream of the meeting will be available on the website of the Parliamentary Dimension of Latvian Presidency at http://parleu2015.lv/en. For the programme of the meeting, please visit http://www.parleu2015.lv/files/cfsp-csdp/programme_cfsp_en-2.pdf.
The Conference will be held at the Ķīpsala International Exhibition Centre, Ķīpsalas iela 8.
Att. Media representatives:
Information on accreditation for events as well as practical information about work at the event venue is available at: http://parleu2015.lv/en/media-1
Saeima Press Service