Riga Conference underway

RIGA -- The Rīga Conference 2010 opens today for two days of security and foreign policy debate, with the presidents of the Baltic States and Poland included among the list of high-profile participants.

According to a press release from the organizers of the event, the conference aims to kick-off high level international discussions on foreign and security policy issues before entering the intensive policy making season in the fall of 2010.

The conference has become the most significant gathering of some of the most respected world thinkers, academics, commentators, journalists, and politicians, providing a platform for a broad intellectual exchange on the current Transatlantic agenda

Two days discussions will be divided into five panels covering such issues as transatlantic cooperation and solidarity, a strategy towards contested Eastern neighborhood, Afghanistan, energy issues in the context of global economic crisis, and the long-expected NATO reforms.

The event is organized annually by LATO, the Latvian branch of NATO, in conjunction with the Latvian ministries of defense and of foreign affairs.