Latvia invites members of Eastern Partnership to Riga summit

Formal invitations to the summit of the Eastern Partnership have been sent on April 28 to the heads of diplomatic missions of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine in Riga. They were sent by the Secretary of State of Latvia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Andrejs Pildegovichs, BelaPAN reports.

The Eastern Partnership Summit will be held in Riga on 21-22 May. Official invitations to the countries - participants of the initiative were signed by Presidents of the European Council, Donald Tusk, European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Latvia, Laimdota Straujuma.

It is planned that in Riga will be discussed the development of the Eastern Partnership and cooperation between the EU and the EaP partner in bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

The first summit of the Eastern Partnership was held in 2009 in Prague (Czech Republic), the second in 2011 in Warsaw (Poland), the third - in 2013 in Vilnius (Lithuania).

Invitations to the summit are issued to the country, rather than a specific representative. So far it is unknown who will represent Belarus at the event. Alyaksandr Lukashenka is included in the "black list" of the EU and has not visited yet any Summit of the Partnership. Analysts believe that the head of Belarus will not go to the Riga summit, because Russia branded it an "anti-Russian" meeting.

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