Latvia, Lithuania establish Balts’ Award

RIGA - On January 11, in the sidelines of the Snow Meeting, the annual event for foreign affairs and security policy experts in Trakai, Lithuania, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius signed the Statutes of the Balts' Award established by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Latvia and Lithuania, LETA learned from the Latvian ministry.

The award is to be presented for the first time this year with the aim of enhancing bilateral relations between Latvia and Lithuania, promoting research on tangible and intangible cultural or historical heritage, as well as motivating the teaching of Latvian and Lithuanian, and translations to and from those languages.

Rinkevics emphasized the importance of the award for the bilateral relations between the countries and said he was convinced that the award would go to the best Latvian and Lithuanian linguists, historians, translators and journalists.