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On 4 September 2025, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže, and the Director of Stanford University Libraries, Michael A. Keller, signed a Memorandum of Understanding, thereby strengthening cooperation with one of the most prominent universities and centers of academic thought in the United States and worldwide. The Memorandum strengthens the existing contacts and opens up new avenues for academic and research cooperation between Latvia and the United States. The cooperation memorandum has been signed for a 10-year term.
Baiba Braže thanked Stanford University Libraries and its Baltic Studies Program for their significant contribution to promoting understanding of the history of Latvia and the Baltic states, as well as for the preservation and maintenance of the evidence of our country’s history in the United States.
Latvia has already developed broad-ranging and diverse cooperation with Stanford University, its Libraries and the Hoover Institution under its jurisdiction. It is in Latvia’s interests to deepen cooperation with the United States, including strengthening Latvian-U.S. cooperation in research and collaborating with U.S. think-tanks. Stanford University is one of the most influential and prestigious universities in the United States, actively involved in foreign policy research and closely associated with major U.S. think tanks. Stanford University is ranked 2nd in the Academic Ranking of World Universities.
About a Memorandum of Understanding between Stanford University Libraries and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- The goal of the Memorandum is to enhance Latvian and Nordic-Baltic studies at Stanford University. The Memorandum would serve as a framework agreement for concluding additional cooperation agreements with the aim of promoting:
1) visits by Latvian scholars, researchers and doctoral students to Stanford University, for example, using U.S. grants and fellowships,
2) visits by students, scholars and academic staff by Stanford University to Latvia and the Baltic region,
3) support to fellows and other visitors from Latvia carrying out lectures and seminars at Stanford University,
4) cooperation between Stanford University and Latvian cultural heritage institutions on the identification and accessibility of cultural heritage, including the digitization and long-term preservation of cultural heritage.
- This past August 26, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted an information report “On Strengthening International Academic Cooperation” initiated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which provides for support to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Stanford University Libraries, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs being designated as the institution coordinating the implementation of the memorandum. Support was also voiced for a call by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the Ministry of Education and Science to provide administrative back-up, as well as on the Ministry of Culture and other line ministries, their subordinate institutions, universities and private partners to offer assistance, within the framework of their resources available, and to participate in the implementation of the memorandum.