Rinkevics underlines need to to keep Ukraine's territorial integrity high on UNESCO agenda

RIGA - The topic of Ukraine's territorial integrity must be kept high on the UNESCO agenda for areas within the organization’s competence and purview, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics (New Unity) said today while meeting with UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay.

As LETA was told at the Foreign Ministry, Rinkevics met with Azoulay on Tuesday. During their conversation, the Latvian minister praised close cooperation between Latvia and UNESCO over the 30 years since Latvia joined the organization and mentioned the Latvian president’s invitation for the UNESCO director-general to visit Latvia.

Rinkevics and the Azoulay discussed the contributions of Latvia and UNESCO to the areas of media and information literacy, protection of media freedom, and fighting disinformation, as well as current UNESCO initiatives in science and culture, highlighting in particular the role of UNESCO in matters of security of journalists. 

The minister emphasized that Latvia has been working actively for a long time on the Intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), offering expertise and making voluntary contributions of funding for the program.

At the same time, Rinkevics indicated that Latvia has been an active participant in UNESCO’s Friends of Ukraine Group and underlined the need to keep the topic of Ukraine’s territorial integrity high on the UNESCO agenda for areas within the organization’s competence and purview.

Director-General Azoulay spoke with appreciation concerning the contribution from a former President of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, to the work of UNESCO’s International Commission on the Futures of Education.

The officials welcomed the significant input by Latvian experts into the elaboration of the UNESCO Recommendation on the ethics of artificial intelligence, which builds on the principles of human rights, democracy, gender equality and ecosystem protection in the use of artificial intelligence.

Rinkevics noted that the past year has been important in Latvia’s cooperation with UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre – two applications from Latvia have been submitted seeking inscriptions on the World Heritage List: "Grobina archaeological ensemble" and "Kuldiga (Goldingen)".