Your Excellencies, Distinguished guests!
I would like to express my deep gratitude for you being here on this important day. It is a historical moment as it is the first time in Latvia that we are celebrating the Malta Independence Day. The Republic of Malta, an island archipelago with a population of some 421,000 located in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily and the North African coast, has gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1964, on September 21.