A look back at The Rīga Conference 2020

The Rīga Conference 2020 took place on the 12th and 13th of November online and gathered such distinguished personalities as the Secretary-General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the Initiator of the Coordination Council of Belarus, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskay and many more for discussions about topics such as NATO relevance on both sides of Atlantic, COVID-19 caused consequences for deterrence and EU resilience in case of crisis.

This year the National Library of Latvia – served as the technical support and filming centre. The Rīga Conference 2020 was broadcasted online on the webpage www.rigaconference.lv, on different social media, as well as national and international media platforms and gathered 150’000 viewers all around the world.

This year The Rīga Conference celebrated its 15^th anniversary. The conference presented seven panel discussions, two special addresses, three warm-up sessions, as well as four side events. One of the most expected panels was the SNAPSHOT FOR THE FUTURE panel. Regarding NATO’s success, H.E. Jens Stoltenberg stated: “NATO is the most successful alliance in history. Our success is based on our values, freedom, democracy, the rule of law and on the unbreakable bond between our countries.” When talking about Europe, H.E. Ursula von der Leyen added: “It is time for a new transatlantic agenda, fit for today’s world and I believe it is Europe who should take the initiative.”

One of the most awaited discussions was by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Political leader, Initiator of Coordination Council of Belarus. She addressed the viewers by saying: “We all know – without free Belarus there is no free Europe. We have gone a long way and we are not turning back. Our country will never be the same and Belarus will be free.” It has been over 3 months since the historic protests started in Belarus and we can definitely see, that they have gone a long way.

The Rīga Conference 2020 was organised jointly by the Latvian Transatlantic Organisation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, and the Ministry of Defence of Latvia in close cooperation with NATO Public Diplomacy Division, Konrad Adenauer Foundation in the Baltic States, and the European Commission Representation in Latvia. The conference was supported by the Embassy of Canada to Latvia, the United States Embassy in Latvia, Royal Norwegian Embassy in Riga, Embassy of Georgia to Latvia, Riga’s official convention bureau Meet Riga, Latvenergo, Swedbank, Seal, and Norstat. The technical provider of the conference was SIA AdDiction.

Other contributions to the conference have been made by the EEA and Norway Grants, Boston Global Forum, Center for AI and Digital Policy, AI World Society Innovation Network, Riga City Council, Amber Distributions, Askaneli Brothers, Pupuchi, NelleUlla, Birzī, Oxford Analytica, Latvian National Library, Armadillo, Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Latvia, and Riga Graduate School of Law.

The informative supporters of The Rīga Conference were Latvian Television, LSM.LV, Latvijas Radio, LETA, LMT, Milmag, iPress, Postimees, TVNET, The Lithuania Tribune, Spektr, Guvenlik Portali, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Hospodarske Noviny, DELFI, Uluslararasi Ilisklier Konseyi, Baltic Defence College, and Hromadske International.

Pictures, videos as well as more information is available at www.rigaconference.lv