The United States and Latvia share an overarching goal: to anchor Latvia securely in the community of democracies. Latvia has made progress in achieving its goal of becoming a fully functioning democracy, while its economic transformation has proceeded faster and further than that of many other former Soviet republics. In general, Latvians respect and admire the United States, and the embassy?s working environment is good. The embassy has a staff of 34 Americans and a program budget of around $12 million. Approximately 1,000 private American citizens live in Latvia.
The embassy?s MPP is a straightforward blueprint for coordinated action across agency lines. It makes an important contribution to redefining the evolving bilateral relationship as Latvia approaches membership in NATO and the EU. The embassy has an effective public diplomacy program, properly geared to rule of law issues, development of democracy, and transparent free market practices, despite a relatively small public affairs section with modest resources. Reporting is thorough and tied closely to U.S. interests. The consular section scores high for good customer service and for instituting several consular ?best practices? in 2000 and 2001. The administrative section functions well, with good communications and coordination, both within the section and throughout the embassy. The embassy enjoys good morale. FSN morale is particularly good because of embassy management?s insistence that Latvian employees be treated as respected colleagues.
The embassy?s law enforcement working group meets regularly to emphasize the importance of interagency reporting on known and suspected terrorists and to provide guidance for submitting names to Washington. In the two months before the inspection, the embassy relayed information on 29 individuals through the Visas Viper channel.
The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.