Latvia’s state-owned railway company, Latvijas Dzelzcels (LDz), carried 7.746mn tonnes of rail cargo in the first half of 2023, which was 36.7% less than in the same period of 2022, LETA reports. The volume of international freight amounted to 7.041mn tonnes (down 39.2%), while domestic freight doubled to 705,000 tonnes. LDz board chairman Rinalds Plavnieks…
Latvia’s Riga City Council has elected New Unity’s Vilnis Kirsis as the capital city’s new mayor, LETA reports. Kirsis named street renovation, construction of new housing, and investment in education as his policy priorities. Kirsis served as acting mayor after the resignation of Martins Stakis, who represented the Progressives and Movement For, in early July…
Latvia’s Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins (New Unity) has proposed a reshuffle of key ministerial posts in his three-party coalition government, LETA reports. Karins proposed that National Alliance MP Rihards Kols become foreign minister and that the United List take over the Ministry of Economy and New Unity the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development….
A large fire broke out at Lithuanian waste management company Ecoservice’s sorting facility near the Gariunai marketplace in Vilnius on 5 August 2023, BNS reports. Mindaugas Sestokas, head of Ecoservice’s production division, said that non-hazardous waste had caught fire in the company’s sorting centre. Also, a fire broke out at state-owned hazardous waste management company…
Lithuania’s Prime Minister, Ingrida Simonyte, expressed confidence in Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas, BNS reports. Earlier, Anusauskas was criticised by President Gitanas Nauseda and other politicians for allegedly disclosing restricted information about the purchase of tanks for the Lithuanian Armed Forces. Simonyte insisted that Anusauskas had not disclosed classified information but conceded that the minister should…
Lithuania will close two of its six border checkpoints with Belarus following the arrival of Russian private military company Wagner Group’s mercenaries in Belarus, Deputy Interior Minister Arnoldas Abramavicius announced, BNS reports. He said that the plan was to close the Sumskas and Tverecius border checkpoints. Saulius Nekrasevicius, deputy director of the State Border Guard…
Spain has taken over NATO’s Baltic air policing mission from the UK’s Royal Air Force, BNS reports. RAF handed over responsibility for the mission to the Spanish Air and Space Force (EA) contingent at the Ämari Air Base in Estonia. EA will patrol the Baltic air space using Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets. EA has participated…
The Baltic electricity transmission system operators have signed an agreement on the synchronisation of the Baltic power grids with the continental European system, The Baltic Times reports. Under the agreement, Estonia’s Elering, Latvia’s Augstsprieguma Tikls (AST), and Lithuania’s Litgrid will disconnect from the Russian-controlled BRELL system and connect to the continental European grid in February…
The US Senate has authorised the allocation of USD 228mn (EUR 208mn) of additional funding to strengthen security cooperation with the Baltic States in 2024, LETA reports. Latvian Defence Minister Inara Murniece said that the funding would allow the Baltic States to develop military capabilities and strengthen the security of NATO’s eastern flank. In 2022,…