A plan to use mobile passport stations to service Latvian citizens in Australia, Canada and the United States this summer needs more than LVL 49,000 in supplementary funding, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have told a parliamentary commission in Rīga.

The officials on June 3 told the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Commission that a request for additional funding will be forwarded to the Council of Ministers, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Under the plan, one official each from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (Pilsonības un migrācijas lietu pārvalde, or PMLP) will travel to Australia, Canada and the United States. Using mobile passport stations, they will collect biometric data from citizens needing new or renewed Latvian passports.

The plan is part of an effort, encouraged by leading diaspora organizations, to increase the number of citizens abroad who may vote in the Oct. 2 parliamentary election.

But the plan cannot be realized given the current resources of the foreign affairs and interior ministries, officials told the Saeima commission. (The PMLP is part of the Ministry of the Interior.) The ministries will be asking the government for LVL 49,416 in additional funding.

As reported earlier, specialists from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the PMLP are expected to bring the mobile passport stations to Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York and Cleveland in the U.S. and Toronto, Hamilton, Montréal, Vancouver and Edmonton in Canada. The specialists are planning to visit the U.S. cities in late June and July, and the Canadian cities in July.

In Australia, according to Latvia’s honorary consuls there, the mobile stations will be brought in August to Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

Reduced funding for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs—part of the government’s overall budget-slashing brought on by the global financial meltdown—also has affected other services, officials told the Saeima commission. At the same time, continued emigration from Latvia has resulted in increased demand for those services. From 2008 to 2009, officials told the commission, demand for consular services from citizens abroad increased 35 percent. Demand for tourist visas to Latvia also has increased. However, last year the number of consular officials abroad decreased 48 percent.

In some cases, the ability of Latvian consular staff to quickly render services has been greatly reduced. In London, the foreign affairs officials told the Saeima commission, those seeking passports through the Latvian Embassy must reserve a time two months in advance. In Moscow, people have been reported standing in line for two days to get a visa for travel to Latvia.

The pending sale by France of an assault ship to Russia is a threat to the Baltic states, according to the Baltic American Freedom League (BAFL), which wants the U.S. House of Representatives to adopt a resolution opposing the deal.

In a June 2 e-mail, BAFL President Vija A. Turjanis urged supporters to write to members of Congress asking them to approve the resolution calling on countries that are part of the European Union or the NATO defense alliance to not sell major weapons systems or offensive military equipment to Russia.

Of immediate concern is France’s plan to sell a Mistral amphibious assault ship to Russia and possibly license construction of up to three more.

Built by the French company DCNS, the Mistral class ships are promoted as multifunctional vessels, capable of being used for both humanitarian and military operations. A Mistral class ship was used in the summer of 2006 to evacuate refugees from Lebanon. The 21,300-ton ship can accommodate a crew of 176 and 450 soldiers. It can carry 16 helicopters.

“Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are very threatened by this deal, as is the entire region,” Turjanis wrote in the e-mail. “We need to do everything in our power to stop this sale of these Mistral amphibious assault ships. NATO has downplayed security concerns in Eastern Europe over this sale, even though Russia fought a war against Georgia, a country striving to become a NATO member, less than two years ago.”

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Florida, introduced H. Res. 982 in December. The proposed resolution would express “the sense of the Congress” that the president, secretary of state and secretary of defense should urge France and other countries not to sell major weapons to Russia until Moscow has met five conditions. Those conditions include withdrawing Russian troops from Georgia and revoking recognition of Georgia’s separatist regions as sovereign states; fulfilling its commitment to remove forces from the Transnistria region of Moldova; stopping actions that violate or threaten neighboring states; halting weapons and related technology sales to state sponsors of terrorism; and taking steps to enforce the rule of law and human rights within Russia.

The proposed resolution was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has told French officials he is concerned about the sale of the Mistral ships to Russia.