On 27 July 2023 in Riga Castle, the President of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, presented a letter of credence to the next Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Latvia to NATO, Māris Riekstiņš.
Since the beginning of his diplomatic career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1992, Māris Riekstiņš has worked as Head of the Western European Division, held the post of the State Secretary of the Ministry for 11 years, as well as serving as Inspector General. From 2007 to 2010, Māris Riekstiņš was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia.
In his capacity of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Māris Riekstiņš has represented Latvia’s interests in the United States and served as non-resident Ambassador to the United Mexican States. He was also posted as Ambassador of Latvia to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), and, from 2017 to February 2023, to the Russian Federation.
Māris Riekstiņš has led the Latvian delegation in accession negotiations for several important international organisations – NATO and the World Trade Organisation. He was the Head of Delegation for talks on the delimitation of the Latvian-Lithuanian maritime border and the Latvian-Estonian maritime border.
For his merits, Māris Riekstiņš has been decorated with the Order of the Three Stars at the rank of Commander (Class III) and the Cross of Recognition at the rank of Grand Officer (Class II), as well as receiving the highest awards of several other countries.
Māris Riekstiņš received higher education at the Latvian Academy of Sports Education and earned his master’s degree from the Department of Law of the University of Latvia.
Māris Riekstiņš succeeds Edgars Skuja, who has held the current Ambassador’s post since 2019.