Need to be ready to respond to multiple crises simultaneously has become daily challenge for all national consular services - Foreign Ministry

RIGA - The need to be constantly prepared to respond to multiple crises simultaneously has become a daily challenge for consular services in all the countries, Agnese Salina, Director of the Consular Department at the Latvian Foreign Ministry, acknowledged during consultations with Baltic colleagues on Thursday. 

As LETA was told at the Foreign Ministry, the annual Baltic States consultations on consular matters took place in Vilnius on Thursday. The consultations addressed current topics of consular assistance, including the departure of the Baltic States nationals from Israel. The changing security situation in the world increasingly calls for a focus on remote identification of persons, in particular, through issuing emergency travel documents in consular assistance cases.

The Baltic states’ officials noted that it was important to plan the availability of consular services in a forward-looking way, for example, in cooperation with external service providers. This year’s consultations also focused on the provision of consular functions in the context of Russia’s hostilities in Ukraine and the increasing number of fraudulent visa applicants from third countries.

Consular consultations provide a valuable and important exchange of experience to improve the effectiveness of consular services. They are held annually on a rotational basis, and have been organized by Lithuania this year. Next year, the consultations will take place in Riga.