The Latvian Olympic Committee (LOK) has elected Janis Buks, president of the Latvian Volleyball Federation (LVF), as acting LOK president, LETA reports. Buks will head LOK until the committee’s next annual assembly. He is chairman of the supervisory council of the Latvian pharmaceutical company, OlainFarm. The previous LOK president, Zorzs Tikmers, resigned in May 2023…
The Estonian government wants to bring forward Estonia’s EU presidency, now slated for 2031, BNS reports. The government argues that organising the EU presidency would be difficult as Estonia will hold parliamentary elections that year. Estonia is due to preside over the EU Council for the first half of 2031. The government suggests switching the…
The Estonian Centre for Defence Investment (RKIK) of the Ministry of Defence has called for tenders for the purchase of mobile field hospitals for an estimated EUR 150mn, BNS reports. Under the eight-year contract, RKIK will procure mobile bandaging stations, mobile field hospitals, individual modules and spare parts, repair, maintenance, and development services, and user…
The total area of agricultural land in Estonia has remained almost unchanged in 2023, according to Statistics Estonia’s preliminary data, The Baltic Times reports. Meanwhile, the area of arable land out of use for one year or more amounts to 28,200 hectares, which is 2.5 times more than in 2022. The area of land used…
Latvia’s Prime Minister, Krisjanis Karins, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met in Riga on 10 July 2023, The Baltic Times reports. The two prime ministers stressed the need for cooperation in strengthening the EU’s external borders and controlling external migration. Karins noted that Italy and Latvia were developing a similar understanding on migration and…
The Nordic and Baltic countries and Poland expect Sweden’s membership of NATO to increase security in the Baltic Sea region, The Baltic Times reports. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that Sweden was joining NATO as a “motivated partner,” after 200 years of non-alignment. Finnish President Sauli Niinistö reiterated that Finland’s membership of NATO was…
The threat from Russia is and will remain real, and all NATO allies must understand and take it “extremely seriously,” Estonia’s Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, stated, The Baltic Times reports. Speaking at the opening debate of a NATO conference in Vilnius, Kallas noted that all allies contributed 2% of GDP to defence in 1988 because…
The speaker of Latvia’s parliament, the Saeima, Edvards Smiltens, met with a delegation of parliamentarians from Japan in Riga, LETA reports. The delegation was led by Hirofumi Nakasone, chairman of the Latvia and Lithuania friendship groups of the upper house of Japan’s parliament, the House of Councillors (Sangiin). The parliamentarians discussed bilateral economic cooperation and…
A 100-kilogramme aerial bomb was found during excavation work at an intersection in Estonia’s second-largest city, Tartu, on 4 July 2023, BNS reports. Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) experts were dispatched to remove the bomb in the city’s Raadi neighbourhood. The bomb will be destroyed at the training grounds of the Estonian Defence Forces in Ida-Virumaa…