On 24-26 September, President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs, who is on a working visit in the United States of America (USA), visited Los Angeles and San Diego in the state of California. Joined by Latvian companies, President Rinkēvičs met with leaders of companies from different US sectors focused on defence cooperation and dual use technologies, biomedicine, startups and film industry. State of California in the US is one of the world’s largest and most competitive markets.
In Los Angeles, President Rinkēvičs met with Palmer Luckey, co-founder of the company Anduril Industries, a defence technology company that develops autonomous systems to transform US and allied military and national security capabilities with advanced technology. The parties discussed global trends in the development of military technology, as well as the latest innovations in the industry. President of Latvia highlighted the advantages of the infrastructure available in Latvia for the rapid testing of military technologies.
President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs together with Latvian film producers and creators also met with Warner Brothers. During the meeting, President stressed that Latvia can definitely expand cooperation with the US film industry. “We have built a solid foundation – Latvian producers are having successful international projects that are co-founded by Latvia under special programme. Our aim is to build closer ties with large US studios. Latvia already has a diverse range of film locations, local film professionals and cost competitiveness to offer to foreign filmmakers,” President Rinkēvičs underlined during the meeting. As reported, Kristen Stewart recently chose Latvia as the location for her film The Chronology of Water. Danish, Swedish and Latvian co-production Woman Unknown, which won the Venice Film Festival Golden Lion this year, was also filmed in Latvia. Moreover, Latvia takes great pride in achievements of its national film industry, for example, Flow that won the category for the best animated feature film in 2025 Academy Awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars).
During visit to Los Angeles, President of Latvia, together with over two hundred US public and private sector stakeholders, attended the working dinner hosted by HE Melissa Argyros, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to Latvia. President focused on the significance of strategic Latvia-US partnership and urged to build stronger trade and investment relations between both countries. Dinner also had public discussion between President and other invited guests moderated by Kevin McCarthy. During the discussion, the President of Latvia emphasized: “Thank you, the United States, for your friendship! The United States is Latvia's strategic partner. Latvia seeks targeted cooperation with the US, which is why I am joined on this visit by representatives from the defence, film and biomedical sectors. We must continue our close cooperation and work together at both the political and business levels.”
In San Diego, the President met with the leadership of the biotechnology company Element Biosciences. During the meeting, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the National Research and Innovation Institute — the principal institution in Latvia responsible for maintaining the national biobank and the state's genomics infrastructure — and Element Biosciences. During the meeting, the President of Latvia expressed Latvia's interest engage in joint research and development projects with US counterparts, and also the involvement of Latvian scientists and doctors in the development of new technologies, and, prospectively, also in US companies. “Latvia is a competitive place in Europe where a US company can cooperate with Latvian researchers and doctors in developing and testing new genomics solutions, while also making use of Latvia's connection to the wider European research area,” President Rinkēvičs said.
President of Latvia also met with management of the US tech company Kratos Defense. Representatives discussed opportunities for Latvia – US cooperation, with a focus on space, satellite communications, and advanced information and communication technologies.
Meeting with Jacob Thaysen, CEO of Illumina, a global leader in DNA sequencing technologies, the President discussed opportunities to expand the existing cooperation, especially in accelerating genomics innovation and scaling precision medicine across Latvia. During the meeting, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Illumina and several biomedical sector institutions in Latvia – the National Institute for Research and Innovations, Riga East University Hospital, Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital, Children's Clinical University Hospital, Riga Stradiņš University and the University of Latvia. All share a commitment to advancing genomics, and the MoU establishes a framework to advance precision medicine and integrate advanced biomedical technologies to help improve patient outcomes.
The President met with leadership from Analog Devices to discuss a potential framework for cooperation between Analog Devices, SAF Tehnika and Riga Technical University.
President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs also met with Rick Smith, founder and CEO of the US tech company Axon. The company produces public safety solutions, focusing on modern security technologies. “Latvia has a clear understanding of current security threats. Development of technologies and capabilities is crucial for credible deterrence and defence posture of NATO’s Eastern flank. Rapid response capabilities are an important component of security technologies, significantly enhanced by integration of various systems. Latvia has two key advantages that are rarely found together: testbed and experience that comes from being near the front line. As hybrid threats continue to escalate, we can use this experience to build better technologies for the benefit of whole NATO,” Edgars Rinkēvičs pointed out during the meeting.
