Alberto Rubio
“Latvia greatly values Spain’s contribution to strengthening security in the Baltic countries,” Ambassador Maris Klisans said during a reception he hosted on Monday to celebrate the proclamation of the Republic of Latvia in 1921.
“On April 9, 1921,” Klisans recalled, “Latvia received the diplomatic note with which it was informed of the decision of the government of Spain on its recognition as an independent and sovereign state.” Since then, “Spain has been a great ally that has always supported Latvia in the most important moments of its democracy,” the ambassador added, “and even continued to recognize its sovereignty despite having been illegally occupied and incorporated into the Soviet Union.”
Maris Klisans alluded as an example to the participation of more than 300 Spanish soldiers in NATO’s ‘Reinforced Forward Presence’ operation in Latvia, which confirms the importance of “the alliance between Latvia and Spain in the European Union and NATO.”
“Both nations,” he continued, “have proven to share common values and interests, and this has been embodied in an active political and economic dialogue, as well as in a mutual interest in strengthening cultural relations.”
In this context, he said he was “very proud of the exhibition project ‘Tradition and modernity, Latvian textile art’, carried out in collaboration with the Spanish Ministry of Culture and the National Museum of Decorative Arts, as well as the recent translation into Spanish of “one of the most important works of modern Latvian literature”, presented during the Madrid Book Fair.
Finally, he recalled the visit of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and then Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya this year to Latvia, which “was a confirmation of the close ties of cooperation and friendship that unites the two countries”.
To close the event, soprano Inga Šļubovska-Kancēviča and pianist Ilze Ozoliņa, both from the Latvian National Opera; and flutist Dita Krenberga, from the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, offered a concert with works of international, Latvian, Spanish music.
