The latest round of Ludovika Ambassadors’ Forum jointly organized by the Regional Cooperation Department of the Ludovika University of Public Service (LUPS) and the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in Budapest, took place on May 6 in the St. Ladislaus Chapel under the title of Latvia's foreign policy priorities.
First, Iván Gyurcsík, regional advisor to the rector of LUPS and head of the Minority Policy Research Group, greeted the audience: “Our university pays special attention to cultivating regional relations in Central and Eastern Europe. Since fall of 2022, ambassadors of seven countries have honoured our institution with their presence: Czech Republic, Poland, Turkey, Croatia, Bulgaria, Albania and Georgia,” he recalled. He added: Latvia and Hungary are actively cooperating in NATO and the European Union, among other things, in the fields of economy, defence, education and tourism. As for bilateral academic partnership, LUPS maintains close relations with the University of Latvia. "In this context, in recent years we have hosted three Latvian university staff members, while one of our colleagues visited a Latvian higher education institution. This academic year, two of our students spent a semester in Latvia, and at the end of April we hosted a Latvian professor as part of the Ludovika Scholars Program," the rector's advisor listed the details of the cooperation.
Next, H.E. Jurijs Pogrebņaks, Ambassador of Latvia, gave a keynote speech of his country's foreign policy. In it, he first mentioned the animated promotion film Flow, which - as Latvia's most successful film work to date - has won more than 70 international awards, including the Golden Globe, the César and the Oscar awards. The key to the success was the close cooperation with Belgian and French partners, the ambassador underlined. Then he recalled the main historical milestones leading up to this, from the founding of the Latvian state through the two world wars and the Soviet occupation to the gaining of freedom and independence.
The ambassador outlined Latvia's foreign policy priorities in three points. The first is to ensure security and defence; the second is to promote economic development and prosperity, the EU's competitiveness and global influence; and the third is to protect the interests of Latvian citizens, involve the public in the development and implementation of foreign policy, and exploit the potential of the significant Latvian diaspora.
The presentation was followed by a roundtable discussion, in which Ambassador Jurijs Pogrebņaks and Krisztián Manzinger, Commissioned Head of the Department of International Law, Faculty of Political Science and Law, Károli Gáspár Reformed University, exchanged views, moderated by Iván Gyurcsík. The discussion focused on the Baltic Way, a human chain, which marked a turning point in the independence aspirations of the states in the region, as well as on the topic of energy security and the Latvian diaspora. You can read more about this in the article here.
Text: Lilla Kovács
Photo: Dénes Szilágyi