On 22 February 2024 during a working visit to the United Nations in New York, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Reinis Brusbārdis, spoke in a thematic event on “Humanitarian Demining in Ukraine and its Consequences for Food Security”.
In his statement, Reinis Brusbārdis underlined Russia’s accountability for killing Ukrainian people and causing suffering, as well as for the destruction of infrastructure. The presence of mines on the Ukrainian territory has a significant impact on economic activity and global food security, for which Russia shall bear full responsibility, the Parliamentary Secretary pointed out. The international community must promote mine clearance on Ukrainian lands and restore the use of areas cleared of mines. Latvia is actively involved in the work of the Halo Trust in mine-clearance on agricultural lands, as well as supplying compact mine clearance kits to Ukraine, the Parliamentary Secretary said at the meeting.
During his visit, Reinis Brusbārdis took part in a meeting between representatives of the Baltic States and the Central Asian countries with a view to deepening the regional dialogue, at which the Parliamentary Secretary also highlighted the issues of Latvian citizens’ security in the context of Russia’s activities against certain Latvian officials and the problem of the circumvention of sanctions. The Parliamentary Secretary also met with the staff of the Microsoft representation office to UN, and with Maher Nasser, Director of the Outreach Division in the UN Department of Global Communications. The topics discussed with representatives from Microsoft and UN covered the use of artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art technology to spread disinformation, and solutions to prevent that.
On February 22 and 23, the Parliamentary Secretary is staying in New York on a working visit to attend events in support of Ukraine at the UN and discuss the ongoing challenges posed by Russian disinformation. On 23 February, Reinis Brusbārdis is scheduled to address a UN General Assembly meeting dedicated to the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression.
