Trade relations

Britain is a major trade partner of Latvia. In eleventh place among exporters to Latvia, the UK is equal first place (with Germany) as a destination for Latvian exports. This is a continuation of much older trading traditions going back to the Middle Ages. Historians claim that the British used Baltic pine for ships’ masts and Baltic hemp for ropes in the battle at Trafalgar. In the 1920s, British consumers bought 40% of Latvian exports.

Today Britain is Latvia’s principal market for timber. Some thirty British companies have a representation in Latvia and the UK is currently in the fifth place in terms of foreign direct investment. However, the good relations that exist today between the two countries have not sprung out of a purely mercantile past.

Support for Latvia's independence

While Britain celebrated the Armistice in November 1918, the Baltic States continued to struggle for their independence. German troops remained in occupation following the cessation of hostilities in Western Europe and both the Bolsheviks and the ‘White’ Russians refused to recognise the independence of the three Baltic States. Britain and her Allies had already accorded the Baltic States recognition, but it was not until the Armistice that it was possible to take military steps to assist them.

While it was decided not to deploy any land forces to the Baltic States, the British Government took the decision “in the case of the Baltic provinces, to protect, as far as we can, the nascent nationalities with our Fleet.” From the outset British Naval Forces were to prove vital to Latvia’s struggle for independence. In April 1919, following an attack upon the Latvian General Head Quarters, President Karlis Ulmanis sought refuge upon the SARATOV, a merchant vessel operating under the protection of the Royal Navy. President Ulmanis was to remain aboard the SARATOV until 27 June when he landed at Liepaja to resume the reins of government.

The British operation in the Baltics lasted until 1920. By its end, the lives of 128 British seamen had been lost. Each November the British Ambassador lays a wreath in the Gulf of Riga to commemorate the deaths of 9 men on board HMS DRAGON. These men fell to a volley of fire from a shore battery whilst repelling the advance of pro-German forces upon Riga.

Co-operation after renewed independence

Britain never recognised the incorporation of the Baltic States in the USSR and on 27 August 1991, together with the other EU countries, recognised Latvia's renewed independence. The first British Ambassador to newly independent Latvia, Richard Samuel, started working in Latvia on 8 October that year.

In his visit to London in 1996, President Guntis Ulmanis, the great-nephew of Karlis Ulmanis, laid a wreath at the Cenotaph war memorial in Whitehall. In May 1998 President Guntis Ulmanis lunched on board the visiting Royal Navy ship H.M.S. Somerset, 79 years to the day after his great-uncle boarded the Saratov.

2006 was a historic year for bilateral relations. H.E the President Vaira Vike-Freiberga visited the United Kingdom as the guest of HM government on 9-13 July. On 18-19 October Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh paid their first State Visit to Latvia. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Riga for the NATO summit on 28-29 November.