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Home For Media Digest Digest - October 20, 2006
Is Riga ready? According to a popular tale, once the answer is “yes”, the ground will open and the city will disappear in the blink of an eye. Luckily for Rigans, this time the question is more specific – will Riga be ready to host the NATO Summit? With the countdown to the summit at just over one month to go, the answer has come – a resounding “yes”.
How do you seat the leaders of 26 NATO member states at one table? By making a very big table. In Latvia’s case, it meant constructing the largest and heaviest conference table in the history of the country. Weighing two tons and measuring 18 metres in diameter, the Riga Summit meeting table will be the centrepiece for all discussions between NATO heads of state and ministers.
For Latvian high school students, the Riga Summit is more than something to read about in newspapers or watch on TV. Since the beginning of September students throughout Latvia have had a chance to express their views directly to ambassadors and experts from NATO countries.
For Latvian high school students, the Riga Summit is more than something to read about in newspapers or watch on TV.
When the Riga Summit convenes on November 28-29 at least 26 heads of state will gather, filling this 800-year old Baltic city by the bay with more presidents, prime ministers and protocol per square kilometer then it has ever seen in its history.
But they will not be the first. Viking chieftains and European kings, princes, dukes, barons and bishops have been passing through Riga for over a thousand years.
Quote
"NATO couldn’t have picked a more favorable setting than Riga for a Summit on
transformation, modernization and open doors. All three are already a part
of Latvia’s success story."
- Ojārs Kalnins,
Latvian Institute Director, Former Latvia's Ambassador to the U.S.
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