Network and objectives

We are proud to be part of a global network of British Embassies and other diplomatic posts, which are tasked with helping to achieve Britain's foreign policy goals.  Our Embassy is part of the Baltic network that will be integrated in a larger Nordic network.

This year, the Embassy team’s aims are:      

• To work with Latvia to promote energy security and to combat climate change
• To work with Latvia to make the EU more competitive globally;
• To help Latvia to promote social and ethnic integration;
• To work with Latvia to create favourable conditions for trade and investment in both directions.

How we achieve our objectives

We achieve these objectives through close contact and meetings with politicians, civil servants, opinion leaders and experts. Another important tool is our projects targeting different groups - from experts and government officials to society at large, for example young people. And our consular and visa teams aim to provide high quality public services, if necessary, across the region. The market advisers in the UKTI team actively promote business opportunities in the UK in the Latvian market through business promotion visits, market advisory services and by organising events. Defence visits and exchanges are core to the work of the Defence Section.

Climate change

In the area of climate change we have run projects for experts, like the recent carbon capture and storage visit to the UK. We are developing a tradition of a high profile annual event on climate change – last year, a Wilton Park conference on energy security in Latvia, this year – a forthcoming  “green business” event in Riga in partnership with the CBI to engage government officials and business.

We also work with the local community through projects like schools’ eco-competitions, environment cleaning events and a climate change poster competition and exhibitions.

Integration

Following from our previous high-profile events on building an inclusive society – the colourful “Kopa-Together” initiative – in 2008 we will run a Baltic-wide project on disability with the involvement of the Leonard Cheshire foundation.

Contacts and partners

These different projects could not be implemented without our close co-operation with government officials, academia and experts, as well as Latvian NGOs, schools and universities.
We also work in close coordination with the British Council, which is the UK's educational and cultural diplomacy institution, and the British Chamber of Commerce in Latvia.

Consular and visa service

An important part of our work is service delivery - providing consular assistance for British nationals and issuing UK visas.  We aim to support British nationals in major life events registering marriages and births. We also offer assistance in crisis. And we encourage British people living in Latvia to register with us.

Visa applications are delivered to Warsaw where the decisions are taken on issuing visas. We are responsible for maintaining a smooth system of receiving our customers’ applications.