State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence Edgars Rinkevics signed an MOU during a visit to Israel last week.
Israel and Latvia have signed an MOU to cooperate in defense industries. State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence Edgars Rinkevics signed the MOU during a visit to Israel last week.
The MOU outlines the main areas for cooperation in defense industries between the two countries. The agreement upgrades Latvia-Israel relations, and puts bilateral defense links on an operational track. During his visit, Rinkevics met Ministry of Defense director general Amos Yaron and other ministry officials, and toured the plants of Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), Elbit Systems (Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE: ESLT), Rafael (Israel Armament Development Authority Ltd.) and other companies.
The Israeli representative of the Latvian investment and economic development agency, Haim Ariel, said the visit and MOU were expected to improve Israel-Latvia relations. He added that the visit and MOU reflected the added value Israel gained from exporting to countries like Latvia (which lack developed technology industries like Israel's), which had joined the EU and had to restructure and redeploy their armed forces.
Ariel believes that Rinkevics's visit will likely lead to bilateral cooperation in other areas.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on February 28, 2005