Visit of the Latvian Ambassador

On Monday, 18 May, the Ambassador of the Republic of Latvia to Poland, H.E. Raimonds Jansons, visited Kraków City Hall and met with Deputy Mayor of Kraków Łukasz Sęk. It was the Ambassador’s first official visit to our city since assuming his diplomatic post in Poland in September 2025.

The conversation focused, among other things, on opportunities for establishing cooperation between Kraków and Riga through joint projects in areas considered important and promising for both sides. One such field of cooperation could be tourism and exchanging best practice in adressing the challenges related to maintaining a balance between its development and residents’ quality of life. Deputy Mayor Sęk presented Kraków’s initiatives concerning the night-time economy, emphasizing the role of public dialogue and the involvement of residents, municipal services, and entrepreneurs. He also referred to the development of premium tourism based, among other things, on the city’s festival offer and meetings industry, highlighting the potential of the ICE Kraków Congress Centre, as well as the importance of pilgrimage tourism.

According to Ambassador Raimonds Jansons, another promising area for future cooperation is the IT sector, as both cities boast a highly qualified workforce. The Deputy Mayor highlighted the dynamic development of Kraków’s local high-tech ecosystem, particularly initiatives connected with the space industry, pointing for example to the strong position of the AGH University of Science and Technology in this field. He also informed the Ambassador about the city authorities’ efforts to attract the European Space Agency Research and Development Centre and the Gaia Factory project to Kraków.

Civil defence remains one of the priority challenges for both countries today. In this context, the importance of the experience of partners from Kyiv was emphasized, particularly with regard to protective infrastructure and crisis response solutions, including the use of metro stations as shelters. Deputy Mayor Łukasz Sęk also spoke about the importance of education and raising public awareness in the field of safety and security, as well as about measures undertaken by the city, such as educational projects and the organisation of simulation exercises.

Both sides underlined the very strong Polish-Latvian relations at the governmental level, as evidenced by the planned June visit of Prime Minister Donald Tusk to Riga. There is no doubt that Polish-Latvian cooperation holds considerable potential and remains beneficial both for the two countries and for the entire Baltic Sea region.