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NATO StratCom opens new office in Latvia

© EPA PHOTO BELGA / BENOIT DOPPAGNE

RIGA, August 20 /TASS/. NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence (StratCom) opened a new office in the Latvian capital of Riga on Thursday. The presidents of Latvia and Lithuania, Raimonds Vejonis and Dalia Grybauskaite, were present at the opening ceremony.

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The StratCom center in Riga is the third such center in the Baltic States. Previously, a NATO Cyber Security Centre opened in Estonia and the NATO Energy Security Center set up an office in Lithuania.

The StratCom center based in Riga is part of NATO’s military structure. It has a status of international military organization. Its task is to develop NATO’s strategic communications capabilities within the Alliance and conduct research and experimentation to find practical solutions to existing challenges.

Latvia announced its plans to set up a specialized NATO center as early as in 2012. On July 1, 2014, Latvia, Estonia, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Britain and Germany signed memorandums on creation of a NATO Strategic Communications Center in Riga at the NATO Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk (USA). The center received NATO accreditation on September 1, 2014 and became operational on January 1, 2015.

Previously deployed at the Latvian Defense Ministry’s building, the StartCom center has now moved into a separate building.

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