Cornelia Pieper, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, leaves today (11 January) on a five-day trip to the Baltic States and Poland.

The first leg of her trip (11-12 January) will take her to Riga, where she will meet Latvian Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins and Culture Minister Ints Dalderis. In Estonia (12 January) she is scheduled to hold talks with Culture Minister Laine Jänes and Deputy Foreign Minister Marten Kokk. In Vilnius (13 January) the Minister of State will meet Lithuanian Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas and Culture Minister Remigijus Vilkaitis.

One of Ms Pieper’s main engagements during her stay in Poland (14-15 January), which she is visiting for the first time in her capacity as Coordinator of German-Polish Cooperation, will be an exchange of views with State Secretary Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s envoy for Germany. She will also hold talks with Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski, Education Minister Katarzyna Hall and a number of other officials.

A meeting with Prof. Irena Lipowicz, the Polish co-chair of the German-Polish Forum, is planned as well.

Her schedule will also include meetings with Deputy Economics Minister Grazyna Henclewska and representatives of the German-Polish Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

The Minister of State is keen to highlight also the role of Germany’s cultural and educational activities abroad. She will therefore be attending a conference in Vilnius for schools from the Baltic region that are members of our “Schools: Partners for the Future” network. In Riga she will be discussing German-Latvian university cooperation and scholarship programmes with senior university officials and students. In all the countries she is due to visit she will make the most of every opportunity to exchange views with local cultural organizations and actors.

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