Edgars Rinkēvičs (born 21 September 1973 in

Jūrmala Jūrmala (; "seaside") is a state city in Latvia, about west of Riga. Jūrmala is a resort town stretching and sandwiched between the Gulf of Riga and the Lielupe River. It has a stretch of white-sand beach, and a population of 49,325 in 2019 ...

) is a

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

n public official and politician, currently serving as the

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( lv, Latvijas Republikas Ārlietu ministrija) is responsible for maintaining the Republic of Latvia's external relations and the management of its international diplomatic missions. The actual Minister of Foreig ...

, a role he has held since 2011. Before beginning in this role, he served as head of the Chancery of the President of Latvia, as State Secretary of the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

, as well as a deputy of the

Saeima The Saeima () is the parliament of the Latvia, Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the po ...

. Having previously represented

Latvian Way Latvian Way ( lv, Latvijas Ceļš) was a conservative-liberal political party in Latvia. It merged with Latvia's First Party to form the Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way (LPP/LC) in 2007. It described itself as "a liberal party defending peopl ...

and the Reform Party, he has been a member of the

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...

party since May 2014.

Early life and education

Rinkēvičs was born in

, where he completed high school in 1991. Upon graduating from high school, he started a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

at the

University of Latvia University of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Universitāte, shortened ''LU'') is a state-run university located in Riga, Latvia established in 1919. The ''QS World University Rankings'' places the university between 801st and 1000th globally, seventh ...

's Faculty of History and Philosophy, which he acquired in 1995. During the same time, in 1994 and 1995 he studied Political Science and International Relations at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen in ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, for which he received a certificate in 1995. In 1997, he obtained his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in political science, followed by a second master's degree from the

Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy The Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy (Eisenhower School), formerly known as the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF), is a part of the National Defense University. It was renamed on September 6, 20 ...

, obtained in 2000.

Career

In 1993 and 1994, Rinkēvičs worked as a journalist reporting on foreign policy and international relations at

Latvian Radio Latvijas Radio (shortened LR; literally "Latvia's Radio") is Latvia's national public-service radio broadcasting network. It began broadcasting on 1 November 1925, and has its headquarters in the Latvian capital, Riga. Latvijas Radio broadcasts ...

, while still studying. In 1995, he took the job as senior referent in the Policy Department of the

, a role he held until March 1996, when he became acting leader of the Policy Department, a role he occupied until September the same year, when he was made acting Deputy Secretary of State for Defence. In May 1997, he became acting Secretary of State for Defence, before coming the main Secretary of State for Defence in August 1997, a role he possessed until October 2008. Between 1998 and 2004, Rinkēvičs was a member of the

party. In February 1998, he became involved in discussion on the US-Baltic Partnership Charter, and from 2002 to 2003 was a member of the Latvian delegation negotiating accession to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

as Latvia's Deputy Head of Delegation. In 2008, he was appointed as Head of the Chancery of the President of Latvia, a role he held until July 2011. In October of the same year, Rinkēvičs joined

Valdis Dombrovskis Valdis Dombrovskis (born 5 August 1971) is a Latvian politician serving as Executive Vice President of the European Commission for An Economy that Works for People since 2019 and European Commissioner for Trade since 2020. He previously served ...

' third cabinet as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Initially an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, he joined the

Zatlers' Reform Party The Reform Party ( lv, Reformu partija), until April 2012 known as Zatlers' Reform Party ( lv, Zatlera Reformu partija, links=no, ZRP), was a centre-right political party in Latvia founded by former President Valdis Zatlers on 23 July 2011. It wo ...

in January 2012. Following the resignation of the Dombrovskis cabinet in 2014, he continued his ministerial roles in

Laimdota Straujuma Laimdota Straujuma (born 24 February 1951) is a Latvian economist who was the Prime Minister of Latvia, Prime Minister of Latvia from January 2014 to February 2016. Before her tenure as Prime Minister, she served as Minister of Agriculture from 20 ...

's first cabinet. In 2014 he stood in the

parliamentary elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

and was elected to parliament before again being confirmed to serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs, this time in Straujuma's second cabinet. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2019 in the

Kučinskis cabinet The Kučinskis cabinet was the government of Latvia from 11 February 2016 to 23 January 2019. The stated objectives of the cabinet were to develop the economy, state security, education and health reform, the living standards of families, and soci ...

and since 2019 in the Kariņš cabinet. In May 2014, Rinkēvičs joined the

party.

Political positions

Rinkēvičs said he welcomed the news about the establishment of full

diplomatic relations Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...

between

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

. Rinkēvičs expressed deep concern over the escalation of hostilities in the disputed region of

Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh ( ) is a landlocked country, landlocked region in the Transcaucasia, South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh, lying between Lower Karabakh and Syunik Province, Syunik, and covering the southeastern range o ...

and called on

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

and

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

to immediately halt fighting and progress towards a peaceful resolution.

Personal life

On 6 November 2014, he publicly announced on his

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

profile that he is

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, making him the first lawmaker in Latvia to announce his homosexuality, as well as the most prominent openly gay politician in a former

Soviet Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

state at the time. In addition to Latvian, he is fluent in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, and French.

Notes

References

External links

* * * 1973 births Living people People from Jūrmala Latvian Way politicians Reform Party (Latvia) politicians New Unity politicians Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Deputies of the 12th Saeima Deputies of the 13th Saeima Deputies of the 14th Saeima Gay politicians Gay diplomats Latvian LGBT politicians Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 3rd Class Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 2nd Class Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 1st Class {{Latvia-politician-stub