05/09/2025
August 3: Discussions about Tibet with members of parliament and city councils in Riga.
Jānis Mārtiņš Skuja of the 'Latvia for Tibet' association arranged two important meetings for me in Riga. In the morning, we met with Member of Parliament Juris Viļums, secretary of the parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs and leader of the Tibet Group in parliament. In the afternoon, we spoke with Riga City Council member Ģirts Lapiņš, chair of the Committee for Security and Anti-Corruption.
MP Juris is very active on Tibet. He is a member of the WPCT, the 'World Parliamentarians' Convention on Tibet'. This is an entity organized by the Tibetan Parliament in Exile that brings together members of parliament from around the world. The convention has existed since 1994 and this year met for the ninth time in Tokyo. Juris is also co-chair of IPAC, the Interparliamentary Alliance on China (https://www.ipac.global/). This alliance unites parliamentarians from democratic countries to take joint action against Xi Jinping's increasingly authoritarian and repressive actions in China, and his international expansionist ambitions. They see this development as a threat to the survival of our democratic rule-of-law-based states.
Els Van Hoof serves as co-chair of this alliance for the Belgian Parliament. Member of the European Parliament Hilde Vautmans is an ordinary member.
Our topics of conversation were therefore not only about the situation in Tibet—which, as a matter of fact, bears many similarities to what the Baltic states experienced during the Soviet occupation—but also about China's geopolitical and economic expansionist ambitions and the threat this poses to our democracies.
And coincidentally, just this morning, a telling photo appeared in the media showing Xi smiling broadly, flanked by Putin and the North Korean despot Kim Jong-un. No comment needed.
When we took a photo in front of the Saeima (parliament), Member of Parliament Leila Rasima rushed over. She is also a member of the parliamentary Tibet Support group, but due to other commitments, she was unable to attend our meeting.
In the afternoon, Jānis took me to Riga City Hall, where we spoke with Council Member Ģirts Lapiņš. He supports the Tibetan cause based on his nationalist conviction that all peoples have the right to self-determination.
Ģirts also explained how the city government works. Riga has 600,000 inhabitants, meaning that one-third of the 1.8 million Latvians live in the capital. However, thirty-five percent of the population is of Russian descent and still sympathizes with Russia and its ally China. They support Xi's Tibet policy. That's why it's sometimes difficult to find a majority for pro-Tibet actions within the remaining 65 percent of ethnic Latvian council members. After all, the priorities of all political parties are different.
I asked whether Riga, following the example of the Lithuanian cities of Vilnius and Kaunas, could establish a "Tibet Square" in the city. Ģirts said that this is difficult for the time being because there are still many Latvian personalities on the waiting list for a street name, but he will keep the proposal in mind for the future. And regarding the display of the Tibetan flag on politically important dates for Tibet, the city's general policy is to display as few flags as possible, with the exception, of course, of the flags of Latvia, Riga, and the EU. It was in front of these three flags that the photo was taken, with the small Tibetan flag in hand.
My thanks to Jānis for finding the time to arrange these arrangements, despite his busy schedule.
——
Support for my bike ride from Antwerp to Tallinn for the SEE Learning program of EdCamp Ukraine, a project close to the heart of the ninety-year-old Dalai Lama, is welcome via https://reachoutforacause.org/en/blogtype/info/project-2025-compassion-rising-tour-voor-oekraine/
Note: Slide the bar below the donation amount on the WhyDonate platform to the left if you don't want to contribute 14% to the platform.
Or by direct transfer to account number BE63 8918 7405 7108 of Reach Out vzw
Compassion Rising World Tour
International Campaign for Tibet Deutschland e.V.
International Campaign for Tibet
International Campaign for Tibet Brussels
International Campaign for Tibet Europe
Freedom for Tibet
Free Tibet
Students for a Free Tibet
Tibet.Net
Europe Stands With Tibet
Student for a Free Tibet - Belgium
RADIO Free TIBET
