OREANDA-NEWS. January 25, 2010. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Titov, held political consultations with Latvian Foreign Ministry State Secretary Andris Teikmanis, met leaders of Russian compatriots’ organizations, and conferred with the Russian ambassadors to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in Riga on January 21.

During the inter-MFA consultations the state of, and prospects for bilateral cooperation were thoroughly discussed, including a schedule of likely political contacts in the current year. Special attention was devoted to the process of streamlining the juridical base, to the completion of preparations for signing a number of important bilateral documents of the trade-and-economic and social-humanitarian clusters and to the further work of the Russian-Latvian Intergovernmental Commission.

Both sides expressed the intention to undertake efforts to resolve outstanding issues in our relations. The Russian side accentuated the attention of the Latvian partners to the necessity of solving the questions connected with safeguarding the rights of Russian compatriots living in Latvia. As also discussed at the meeting with leading members of the compatriots’ organizations, of special concern are the narrowing of the space of the use of the Russian language and access to education in it, the problem of mass non-citizenship, the limitation of electoral rights and attempts at the falsification of history.

An exchange of views took place on a broad range of issues of international politics, including the problem of the formation of a new European security architecture, Russian relations with the EU and NATO, cooperation among the Baltic Sea states and a number of other topical problems.

The meeting with the Russian ambassadors in the Baltic countries reviewed the topical tasks of Russian policy in the Baltic sector and questions of the functioning of our overseas agencies.