On Wednesday, 14 February, Ināra Mūrniece, Speaker of the Saeima, met with Rt. Hon. John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who is on an official visit to Latvia, first Speaker-level visit since 2000. Speaker Mūrniece expressed appreciation of the United Kingdom’s contribution in strengthening the security of the Baltic States and underlined the importance of further developing close partnership in such core areas as security, defence and foreign policy.

On Thursday, 8 February, the Saeima approved the draft decision “On the proposal to introduce sanctions against the officials connected to the Sergei Magnitsky case” elaborated by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Saeima. The decision tasks the Cabinet of Ministers with taking appropriate steps to include 49 individuals from Russia in the persona non grata list, banning them from entering the territory of the Republic of Latvia. 

On Thursday, 25 January, at the annual Foreign Policy Debate at the Saeima Ināra Mūrniece, Speaker of the Latvian Parliament, stated: “In the upcoming elections this autumn, voters will decide on who will shape Latvia’s foreign policy and what it will be. Our greatest responsibility is and will be the strengthening of Latvia’s independence and security”.

On Wednesday, 24 January, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Saeima supported the introduction of sanctions against the officials connected to the Sergei Magnitsky case. The Committee has drafted a Saeima decision tasking the Cabinet of Ministers to take appropriate steps to ban 49 individuals from entering the territory of the Republic of Latvia, i.e., including them in the persona non grata list.

On Tuesday, 16 January, Irakli Kobakhidze, Chairperson of the Georgian parliament, visited the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia, Saeima, where he and Ināra Mūrniece, Speaker of the Saeima, signed the strategic partnership memorandum between the Parliament of Georgia and the Saeima. The memorandum is a commitment to develop strategic partnership and deepen parliamentary cooperation.

“The joint visit of the Nordic and Baltic(NB8) speakers to China not only promotes cooperation between China and the Nordic-Baltic region, but also advances the Latvia-China bilateral ties”, stressed Ināra Mūrniece, Speaker of the Saeima, while meeting Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, together with other speakers of NB8 countries in Beijing.

On Friday, 15 December, Inese Lībiņa-Egnere, Deputy Speaker of the Saeima, met at the Saeima with Eduard Sharamazanov, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. Lībiņa-Egnere noted that 2017 is a symbolic year in the Latvian-Armenian cooperation as it marks the 25th anniversary since diplomatic relations were established between the two countries. “This is a good time to look back on what has been achieved so far and energise our parliamentary cooperation. It plays a special role in the context of strengthening political dialogue and sharing experiences,” Deputy Speaker Lībiņa-Egnere told her Armenian counterpart.

“Ukraine can always count on Latvia’s support. We will continue to offer our help to Ukraine on its road to reform,” Speaker Ināra Mūrniece underlined on Wednesday, 13 December, welcoming to the Saeima Andriy Parubiy, Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament.

On Monday, 4 December, Ināra Mūrniece, Speaker of the Saeima, met with Andrian Candu, President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, who is in Latvia on an official visit. During the meeting, Speaker Mūrniece noted that the implementation of the reform plan is a prerequisite for deepening Moldova’s relations with the European Union.