The current British ambassador this week is paying his last official visits to Latvian ministers, while the new ambassador is scheduled to start his tour of duty in August.

Ian Bond, the United Kingdom’s ambassador, is leaving to take another diplomatic post, according to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London. He became the ambassador to Latvia in April 2005.

Among his farewells will be July 25 meetings with Prime Minister Aigars Kalvītis and Defense Minister Atis Slakteris, according to press releases from the ministers’ offices.

Bond’s biography on the British embassy’s Web site states the highlight of his time in Latvia has been the October 2006 state visit of Queen Elizabeth II and the visit by Prime Minister Tony Blair during the November 2006 NATO defense alliance summit in Rīga.

The new British ambassador will be Richard Moon. Moon joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 1983. His first diplomatic appointment was as second secretary in the British embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia. Since 2005 he has been the United Kingdom’s deputy permanent representative to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.

Latvia will be his first appointment as an ambassador.