On September 10-11, 2010, Riga, the capital of Latvia, hosted one of the leading security forums in Northern Europe – the Rīga Conference. The conference has become the most significant in Northern Europe gathering of some of the most respected world thinkers, academics, commentators, journalists, and politicians, providing a platform for a broad intellectual exchange on the current Transatlantic agenda.

The 5th Riga Conference aimed to kick-off high level international discussions on foreign and security policy issues before entering the intensive policy making season in the fall of 2010.

This year the Rīga Conference has focused on such topics as how to strengthen the EU international profile, security implications of the global financial crisis for the West, a new Strategic Concept for NATO and a need for reforms, a strategy towards Europe’s contested neighborhood, the success of a “reset” policy approach towards Russia, the future of NATO’s mission in Afghanistan and the renaissance of geopolitics in the search for energy resources.

Tengiz Pkhaladze, the Chairman of ICGS attended the Riga conference. He had meetings with representatives of political, scientific and NGOs’ circles.

The Rīga Conference was organized by the Latvian Transatlantic Organization, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia.