FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ottawa, ON – On Thursday, October 29, Conservative Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Chong held a phone call with H.E. Kārlis Eihenbaums, Ambassador of the Republic of Latvia to Canada, about Canada-Latvia relations.
MP Chong highlighted several items with the Ambassador, including:
- Canada’s close and friendly ties to Latvia, an ally and partner in NATO. Chong noted that hundreds of Canadian Armed Forces members are deployed in Latvia on Operation Reassurance, Canada’s largest current international military operation and part of NATO assurance and deterrence measures, an operation which Conservatives support.
- Conservatives’ belief in expanding trade with democratic allies. He pointed to the opportunities under the new CETA for Canada to expand trade with Latvia, a member of the European Union.
- Conservatives’ belief that Canada should work with Latvia and other European democracies to provide a counter to increasingly authoritarian regimes.
H.E. Kārlis Eihenbaums congratulated MP Chong on his appointment and thanked him for the Conservatives’ continued support for close bilateral relations. H.E. Eihenbaums raised Latvia’s view that Canada should extend and continue to lead the military mission in Latvia beyond March 2023, its continued support for the release of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor wrongfully detained by China, support for sanctions on those responsible for the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, and the situation in Belarus.
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