LATVIA: President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev holds talks in Riga with Latvian President Vaira Vike Freiberga

Kazakhstan wants to purchase a number of Latvian sea ports, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev revealed after talks with the Latvian leader Vaira Vike-Freiberga in Riga on Tuesday (July 18). The Baltic sea - or to be more precise - the ice-free harbours at its coast is the magnet which attracts Kazakhstan to Latvia. Both countries want to continue economic cooperation. Kazakhstan needs an oil transit corridor to the West while Latvian harbours require external investment. At their talks in the Latvian capital both countries signed a joint declaration on their partnership on the economy, international relations, culture and education. Nazarbayev had planned to visit the port of Ventspils which Kazakhstan wants to use to transport oil from Latvia, but the trip was cancelled amid reports of a row involving a joint Latvian and Kazakhstan holding company, Ventspils Grain Terminal, and the board of Ventspils free port. After their morning meeting the two presidents issued a joint statement in which Latvia confirmed its intention to support Kazakhstan's candidacy for the OSCE chairmanship. In recent weeks historians have been analysing archive materials given to Vike-Freiberga during her visit to Kazakhstan two years ago. Documents have revealed the fates of 226 Latvians living in Kazakhstan who were executed by the Soviets in 1937-38. Historian Janis Riekstins revealed that these people were arrested on trumped-up charges and killed purely because of their nationality. Riekstins said: "People were not subjected to repressions for their deeds or their anti-Soviet offences but mainly, and I want to stress it once more, they were persecuted due to their national origin." Riekstins says he feels gratified at the possibility of filling the gaps in Latvia's history, as a result of Kazakhstan's help.

ITN Source | July 20, 2006

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