Braže confirmed as Foreign Minister, national defense will be taught in all schools
Culture minister survives no-confidence vote
The Latvian parliament as expected at an extraordinary session confirmed veteran diplomat Baiba Braže as the Baltic country’s new Foreign Minister, replacing Krišjānis Kariņš, who resigned his post effective April 10.
Braže, a former ambassador to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands and NATO Assistant Secretary General for public diplomacy from 2020 -2023, was confirmed by a vote of 66 to 11 in the 100-member parliament or Saeima.
Latvia’s new Foreign Minister Baiba Braže. Photo: Foreign Ministry X-feed.
In accepting her nomination on April 15, Braže said at a press conference that that her priorities as Foreign Minister would be to advance Latvia’s security interests, to seek cooperation of European defense industries, to attract investment to Latvia.
Two opposition parties, the centrist United List (AS) and the populist Latvia First (LPV) voted along with Prime Minister Evika Siliņa’s center-left coalition to confirm the 57-year-old lawyer who joined Latvia’s diplomatic service in 1993. The conservative nationalist National Alliance (NA) abstained.
Edgars Tavars, a lawmaker from the AS told the extraordinary session of the Saeima that his faction would vote for Braže because his party alliance had always favored bringing professionals into government,
Ainars Šlesers of the LPV praised the nominee’s professionalism but also criticized Latvia’s foreign policy to date for placing insufficient effort and inadequate funding on economic diplomacy to attract investors to Latvia and to promote Latvian exports.
National Defense classes in all schools
All Latvian high schools must implement obligatory national defense training starting from September 1, the traditional start of a new school year, Prime Minister Evika Siliņa told journalists following the regular government meeting April 16 .
The government decision implements a 2018 law that started national defense training at grades 10 and11 on a voluntary basis at selected schools and called for making it obligatory in all high schools in 2024.
Siliņa spoke at a press conference where Minister of Education and Science Anda Čakša said the course would involve 112 hours of teaching and practical exercises over a two-year period.
The course will be taught with instructors from the voluntary Youth Cadet Corps or Jaunsardze, which has already participated in the pilot program teaching of national defense at several schools and has its own programs of extracurricular and summer camp activities, Čakša said.
Minister of Defense Andris Sprūds said the course would include subjects ranging from the historical and theoretical basis for national defense, the role of the armed forces, civil defense and a range of practical matters including leadership, outdoor survival, first aid and basic weapons skills. That means that schools would have to install firing ranges or get convenient access to such facilities nearby.
The idea of teaching national defense was launched in 2018 before Russia invaded Ukraine and the program is now seen as preparing young people for participation in the National Defense Service (VAD). The VAD is a hybrid of voluntary and compulsory military service implemented in 2023 that has so far filled two “recruitment rounds” with volunteers and most of a third round, now seeking some draftees after some volunteers were found unfit for service.
Drones on the way to Ukraine
At her April 16 press conference, Siliņa also said the first delivery of drones from the 14-nation drone coalition would be on their way to Ukraine. Defense Minister Sprūds, said he could not give many details of the delivery, but said it consisted mainly of so-called first-person view (FPV) drones that allow a remote drone operator to see what the drone’s cameras show and to steer it accordingly.
While FPV drones can be used for several tasks, many are used either to drop munitions on enemy personnel, positions, and vehicles, or to destroy targets by direct impact – with the drone destroyed in the process.
Culture Minister survives no-confidence vote
Opposition lawmakers attempted on April 18 to unseat Agnese Logina, the Minister of Culture for her support of Latvian Radio and Latvian Television continuing to broadcast in Russian after 2026, a cut-off date set by Latvia’s National Security Concept.
The no-confidence vote against Logina, who represents the social democratic Progressives (Pro) in Latvia’s center-left coalition, failed by a vote of 66 to 24 in the 100-member parliament or Saeima. The challenge to the Minister of Culture only served to feed the harshest critics of the government, both on the floor of the parliament and on social media.
The no confidence vote and related debate also made things look worse for the Prime Minister Siliņa’s coalition. Her Minister of Culture was backed by votes from the allegedly pro-Russian For Stability (S!) party and the populist LPV party. LPV leader and founder Šlesers, prior to the invasion of Ukraine, was an enthusiastic supporter of expanding trade with Russia and bringing in Russian investment, including selling so-called golden visas to high stakes investors in real estate or company shares.
More state funds to finance air Baltic
Following the regular April 23 government meeting, Transport Minister Kaspars Brišķens (Progressives/Pro) and Finance Minister Arvils Ašeradens (New Unity/JV) announced they were asking for changes in rules that would allow the government to invest in debt securities. This would make it possible for the Latvian state to buy interest-bearing debt paper alongside private investors. The case in point, the state-owned national airline air Baltic which has some EUR 200 million in bonds issued in 2019 that must be repaid this year. In other words, the government wants to step in to buy a new bond issue ahead of a probable bourse listing of the airline by year-end or in early 2025.
Latvia as far as I know doesn’t have a state investment fund that works globally like the wealth funds of some oil-rich nations (Norway, for example) so why would it want to seek opportunities to buy interest bearing debt instruments. The only answer seems to be to roll over the air Baltic debt with some skepticism as to whether the private capital market will step in to do it all. That given, it seems that state-owned air Baltic is doing reasonably well and heading for a modesr profit for 2023. However, it is not entirely out of the wo..clouds yet.