Maj. M. Kučere will also serve as Defence Attaché of Latvia for the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, the new Defence Attaché will be based in Riga.

Maj. I. Kučere studied semiconductors and electrovacuum engineering in Riga Polytechnical Institute, and attended officer courses at the National Defence Academy of Latvia. The new Latvian Defence Attaché is 48, she is married an has a son.

Lt. Col. Arkadijs Umbraško, predecessor of Maj. I. Kučere, held the office till August 2008.

The main fields of military cooperation between Lithuania and Latvia is developed in trilateral Baltic projects: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia jointly develop Baltic Air Surveillance Network integrated with NATO's airspace defence system, assign warships to the Baltic Squadron BALTRON that conducts mine clearance operations in the Baltic Sea, and maintain a joint military school - the Baltic Defence College in Tartu, Estonia. From 2007 all the three Baltic States prepare their troops for joint duty in the NATO Response Force (NRF-14) in composition of BALTBAT, the Baltic Battalion.

Picture by Alfredas Pliadis

In the first half year of 2010 Lithuania and Latvia and Estonia together with Germany, Poland and Slovakia will delegate troops to the quintalateral EU Battlegroup.

For the media: Maj. I. Kučere will be accredited at the Ministry of National Defence (Totorių Str. 25/3, Vilnius), the Black Hall. Beginning of the ceremony at 11.00.