Latvia’s new ambassador to the NATO defense alliance, Jānis Eichmanis, began work Jan. 9 in Brussels, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced.

Eichmanis replaces Aivis Ronis, who left the post to pursue private matters. Ronis was a former Latvian ambassador to the United States, and Eichmanis served under him as military attaché.

Born in Latvia in 1942, Eichmanis was educated in Canada and the United Kingdom. His most recent appointment was as Latvia’s ambassador to Greece.

Eichmanis is the third Latvian ambassador to the defense alliance. The first was Imants Lieģis, a Latvian born in the United Kingdom.

Rīga will be the site of a NATO summit in November.

Latvia ranks 39th out of 161 countries in terms of its economic freedom, according to a study by the Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal newspaper.

Seen as “mostly free,” Latvia lost ground in the 2006 Index of Economic Freedom because the cost of government became more expensive and because of its monetary policy, according to the report released Jan. 4. Latvia’s overall score on the index, which looks at 50 different variables, dropped to 2.43, down from 2.31 in the 2005 index.

Estonia, with an index of 1.75, ranked seventh in the world, while Lithuania, with an index of 2.14, ranked 23rd. Hong Kong, Singapore and Ireland took the first three spots in the index.

The 2006 index, the Heritage Foundation said in a press release, measured 161 countries. The 50 variables were divided among 10 broad categories, including trade policy, the fiscal burden of government, government intervention in the economy, monetary policy, capital flows and foreign investment, banking and finance, wages and prices, property rights, regulation, and Informal market activity.

The higher the score in the index, the greater the level of government interference, according to the Heritage Foundation.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II might visit Latvia toward the end of 2006, although officials are not confirming the information, the news agency LETA reported Jan. 2.

LETA said the information came from an unidentified foreign affairs source.

The visit, former Foreign Minister Valdis Birkavs told LETA, would be evidence that Latvia is not a small country that can be bypassed. Birkavs also told the news agency that the queen’s potential visit may have been spurred by U.S. President George W. Bush’s visit to Rīga last year, as well as the coming NATO summit set for November in Rīga.

Similarly, Atis Lejiņš, director of the Latvian Institute of Foreign Affairs (Latvijas Ārpolitikas institūts) in Rīga, told LETA that the queen’s visit would be evidence of good relations between the United Kingdom and Latvia, and would draw increased media attention to Latvia.

Queen Elizabeth II would not be the first high-ranking British official, nor the first royal, to visit Latvia. Prince Charles came to Latvia in 2001—although his visit was tainted by the now-famous carnation incident, when a young woman slapped the prince with a flower as he shook hands with well-wishers in the streets of Rīga.