Latvian Ambassador Āris Vīgants visits Gimpo city to foster cultural exchange.

On 9 March 2021 Ambassador of the Republic of Latvia in the Republic of Korea Āris Vīgants visited Gimpo City to sign a Memorandum of Understanding building a cooperative relationship and an organizational framework of collaboration between the Latvian Embassy and Gimpo Cultural Foundation with the goal of organizing three simultaneous and inter-connected exhibitions that aim to introduce Latvian culture in Gimpo on the occasion of 30th Anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Latvia and Korea in 2021.

A set of three exhibitions will be showcased in Gimpo under the title of “The World We Meet Again, Latvia” from 25 March to 29 May in the premises of Gimpo Art Center (Gimpo Art Village) in the city of Gimpo located 24 km west from the capital city of Seoul. The Latvian culture program will introduce the visitors with the wonders of the Latvian Architecture, Latvian Traditional Folk Costumes as well as various Latvian children’s book illustrations. In addition to the exhibition people will also have the opportunity to experience various Latvia related handcrafting activities along with the Latvian cinema.

During the visit Ambassador Āris Vīgants was received in Gimpo Art Center, Gimpo Art Village and Gimpo City Hall, where he met with the Mayor of Gimpo Jung Ha-Young who serves as an Acting Board Director of Gimpo Culture Foundation, CEO of Gimpo Culture Foundation An Song-Yong as well as the professional team of Gimpo Culture Foundation, currently in charge of the Latvian exhibition program.

Ambassador’s visit to Gimpo city was a notable event to strengthen the Latvian presence in the South Korean regions. It has also helped strengthen the bilateral cooperation with Gimpo city and has set a foundation for an even deeper future collaboration between the two parties.

In the conclusion of the meeting the Mayor of Gimpo expressed his interest in a possible creation of a sister city relations between Gimpo and a Latvian city, as well as extended his sincere invitation to the Latvian Ambassador to visit an important landmark of Gimpo city, Aegibong Peace Ecological Park. This park acts as an educational center for security and peace, and is a space where visitors can look at North Korea and paint the future of the unified Korean Peninsula.