The Latvian flag will be flying abroad much less if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs budget cuts go through. Photo by Nathan Greenhalgh.
RIGA — Latvia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is being forced to cut their budget for 2010 by 6 million lats (€8.5 million), which might entail closing all its consulates and up to 10 embassies.
“If the country is in trouble, we have to renounce from something,” President Valdis Zatlers said about the plans to close down Latvian embassies.
On the chopping block are diplomatic facilities in the former Soviet Union, including neighboring Russia and Belarus. The ministry will try to keep facilities in the European Union and NATO countries open. Minister of Foreign Affairs Maris Riekstins calls the situation critical.
“The whole foreign affairs section might get paralyzed,” Riekstins announced Wednesday to the members of Saeima’s foreign affairs commission.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Rets Plesums told Baltic Reports that almost half of Latvian embassies already have only two staff members, ambassador and consulate. “I myself just recently returned to the ministry after working as ambassador in this way in one post-Soviet country for three months. As ambassador you have to do literally everything, including accounting. I’m not sure if I would like to do it again,” Plesums said.
Plesums said current staff and foreign countries shouldn’t panic, though. At the moment it is only proposal for the next year’s budget.
But ministry has already got phone calls from Belarusian journalists asking when the Latvian embassy in Vitebsk would be closed. According to Plesums, Latvia’s representation in Russia is a specifically delicate political question. Currently the plan is to close down three consulates in this country, and such move would definitely not stay without some reaction from Kremlin.
Reducing finances for the diplomatic sector as planned would mean, in terms of human resources, returning to the level of 2004, before joining European Union and NATO, and 2010 entails higher expenses for Ministry of Foreign Affairs since Latvia will be presiding country for both Baltic Council of Ministers and Nordic Council.
The embassies aren’t the only part of the ministry that may get the axe. The Latvian Institute, which publicizes in-depth information about Latvia and provides assistance for diplomats and mass media, is getting the hardest blow. The budget for next year is only 21,000 lats (€30,000) for the entire institute. Both Riekstins and Latvian Institute’s head Ojars Kalnins say this leads to only one conclusion — the institute will be closed down, as the amount is clearly untenable for operation.
