Edgars Rinkēvičs

Edgars Rinkēvičs
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 October 2011
Prime Minister	Valdis Dombrovskis Laimdota Straujuma Māris Kučinskis
Preceded by	Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis
Personal details
Born	21 September 1973 Jūrmala, Soviet Union (now Latvia)
Political party	Latvian Way (Before 2004) Reform Party (2012–2014) Unity (2014–present)
Alma mater	University of Latvia University of Groningen

Edgars Rinkēvičs (born 21 September 1973 in Jūrmala) is a Latvian politician and official, current Minister for Foreign Affairs of Latvia. He is a member of Unity.

Rinkēvičs was educated at high school in Jurmala, before completing a Bachelor's degree at the University of Latvia in History and Philosophy (1995). He then received a Master's degree in political science in 1997, followed by another Master's degree at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.^[1]

In 1993, Rinkēvičs started work as a journalist reporting on foreign policy and international relations at Latvian Radio. In 1995 he took up a post at the Ministry of Defence, becoming the Director of his internal department the following year. In May 1997 he became Deputy State Secretary for Defence Policy, and then subsequently the Secretary of State.

Between 1998 and 2004, Rinkēvičs was a member of the "Latvian Way" political party. In February 1998, he became involved with discussion on the US-Baltic Partnership Charter; and from 2002 to 2003 was a member of the Latvian delegation negotiating accession to NATO (Deputy Head of Delegation). By 2011, he was appointed as Head of Chancery to the President of Latvia. In October of the same year, Rinkēvičs joined Valdis Dombrovskis' government as Minister for Foreign Affairs. In January 2012, his party formally entered into a governing alliance with the Zatlers' Reform Party. In 2014 he stood in parliamentary elections, and was elected to parliament; again serving as Foreign Minister in Laimdota Straujuma's second government.

On November 6, 2014, he publicly announced on his Twitter profile that he is gay.^[2] This made him the first lawmaker in Latvia to announce he is gay, as well as the most prominent openly gay politician in a former Soviet Bloc state at the time.^[3]

References

1. "Saeima izsaka uzticību Dombrovska trešajai valdībai" (in Latvian). Delfi. 25 October 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
2. "Rinkēvičs sociālajos medijos paziņo: 'lepns būt gejs'" (in Latvian). Delfi. 2014-11-06. Retrieved 2014-11-06.
3. "Gay Star News - Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender global news, entertainment, travel and features". Retrieved 8 November 2014.

External links

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs profile