On 26 August, the Foreign Ministry Secretary of State, Andris Teikmanis, met with the  Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Norway to Latvia, Nils Olav Stava, as part of the Ambassador's farewell visits.

During the meeting, the Foreign Ministry Secretary of State expressed gratitude to the Ambassador for his contribution to the promotion of the bilateral dialogue during the five year period of Nils Olav Stava's activities in Latvia.

The participants of the discussion shared the opinion that the Latvian-Norwegian co-operation is broad and varied, an active dialogue is maintained in many fields, a number of cooperation projects have been implemented and close contacts have been established between government institutions, local authorities and non-governmental organisations.

Secretary Teikmanis pointed out that the financial support to numerous projects in this country provided by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism and the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism is important for Latvia. The parties noted with satisfaction the active political dialogue at the bilateral and regional level, as well as within international organisations.

The officials discussed current economical issues, the situation in the labour market, exchanged opinions on the enlargement of the EU and Iceland's application to join the European Union.

This meeting will conclude the Norwegian Ambassador's farewell visits to the senior officials of the Republic of Latvia. On 5 August 2009, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway, Nils Olav Stava, received the Order of the Three Stars, third class, for merits to Latvia and for his contribution to strengthening the relations between the two countries. The Ambassador of Norway to Latvia, Nils Olav Stava, was accredited in September 2004 and works as head of the diplomatic corps since August 2008.

(End of text)