Edgars Rinkēvičs

Edgars Rinkēvičs (born 21 September 1973) is a Latvian politician and official, being the current Minister for Foreign Affairs of Latvia. He is a member of the Unity party.

Edgars Rinkēvičs
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Assumed office
25 October 2011
Prime MinisterValdis Dombrovskis
Laimdota Straujuma
Māris Kučinskis
Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš
Preceded byĢirts Valdis Kristovskis
Personal details
Born (1973-09-21) 21 September 1973
Jūrmala, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union
(now Latvia)
Political partyLatvian Way (Before 2004)
Reform Party (2012–2014)
Unity (2014–present)[1]
Alma materUniversity of Latvia
University of Groningen

Early life and education

Rinkēvičs was educated at high school in Jūrmala, before completing a bachelor's degree at the University of Latvia in History and Philosophy (1995). He then received a master's degree in political science in 1997, followed by another master's degree at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

Career

In 1993, Rinkēvičs started work as a journalist reporting on foreign policy and international relations at Latvian Radio. In 1995 he took up a post at the Ministry of Defence, becoming the Director of his internal department the following year. In May 1997 he became Deputy State Secretary for Defence Policy, and then subsequently the Secretary of State.[1]

Between 1998 and 2004, Rinkēvičs was a member of the "Latvian Way" political party. In February 1998, he became involved with discussion on the US-Baltic Partnership Charter; and from 2002 to 2003 was a member of the Latvian delegation negotiating accession to NATO (Deputy Head of Delegation). By 2011, he was appointed as Head of Chancery to the President of Latvia. In October of the same year, Rinkēvičs joined Valdis Dombrovskis' government as Minister for Foreign Affairs. In January 2012, his party formally entered into a governing alliance with the Zatlers' Reform Party. In 2014 he stood in parliamentary elections, and was elected to parliament; again serving as Foreign Minister in Laimdota Straujuma's second government.[1]

On November 6, 2014, he publicly announced on his Twitter profile that he is gay.[2][3] This made him the first lawmaker in Latvia to announce he is gay, as well as the most prominent openly gay politician in a former Soviet Bloc state at the time.[4]

He was confirmed as minister of foreign affairs in the cabinets of Māris Kučinskis (2016–19) and Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš (since 2019).

Political positions

Rinkēvičs said he welcomed the news about the establishment of full diplomatic relations between Israel and Bahrain.[5]

Rinkēvičs expressed deep concern over the escalation of hostilities in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to immediately halt fighting and progress towards a peaceful resolution.[6]

See also

References
  1. Kroet, Cynthia (18 December 2014). "Edgars Rinkēvičs: Latvia's foreign minister". Politico. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  2. "Foreign Minister 'Proud to be gay'". Public Broadcasting of Latvia. 6 November 2014. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  3. "Latvia's foreign minister comes out as gay". The Guardian. Agence France-Presse. 2014-11-07. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-04-06.
  4. Potts, Andrew (7 November 2014). "Latvia's Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics has come out as gay on Twitter". Gay Star News. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  5. Rinkēvičs, Edgars [@edgarsrinkevics] (12 September 2020). "I welcome the news about the establishment of full diplomatic relations between #Israel and #Bahrain, it will foster peace and stability in the region. I applaud the role of the United States for efforts to facilitate the normalisation of Israel-Bahrain relations" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  6. "Lithuanian, Latvian FMs concerned over Armenia's large-scale provocation against Azerbaijan". Trend News Agency. 27 September 2020. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020.
Political offices
Preceded by
Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis		 Minister of Foreign Affairs
2011–present		 Incumbent
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