President Paul Kagame is embarking on an official visit to the Republic of Latvia – a country on the Baltic Sea between Lithuania and Estonia – from October 1 to 3, foreign minister Amb Olivier Nduhungirehe announced on Monday, September 30.

As noted, it is the first official visit by a Rwandan President to the Baltic States, as well as the first official visit by an African President to the country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. During the visit, a memorial to honour the victims of the 1994 Genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi will be inaugurated at the National Library of Latvia ("The Castle of Light"), the minister noted in a post on X. This will be the first genocide memorial erected in the Baltic States and in Eastern Europe.

Latvia is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. AirBaltic, the flag carrier of Latvia, was founded in 1995, has its headquarters in Riga and flies to 68 destinations.

The politics of Latvia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic. The prime minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The President holds a primarily ceremonial role as Head of State. Executive power is exercised by the government. Evika Siliņa, a Latvian lawyer and politician, has been serving as the prime minister of Latvia since September 2023. Latvia's long-serving [since 2011] foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics became President in July 2023.