The ethnic communities are an inalienable part of Latvia. That’s why the development of the identify of each of them is part of the process of developing the common values of society, Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis said in an interview for IPN Agency that was published on February 22, 2013. He answered this way to a question about the similarities and differences between Latvia and Moldova concerning the situation of the Russian community and the relations of the two states with Russia. “As regards the situation of the Russian community in Latvia, I think we must continue to develop common values and identity for all the ethnical communities. The Russian community, as the Ukrainian, Polish, Belarusian, Estonian and Lithuanian communities in Latvia, is an inalienable part of our state. But we must strengthen our common foundations, like for example the understanding of our common history, values and identity,” said the Latvian Premier. According to him, Latvia builds the relations with Russia based on the principle of mutually advantageous cooperation. “In a few words, our objective is to establish and maintain constructive relations with the neighboring countries, based on mutually advantageous cooperation. It is evident that it is easier to achieve this goal with some of the states. Though the EU member states account for about 70% of the volume of foreign trade, Russia for us is also an important commercial partner, with which we want to cooperate,” the Latvian official said in an interview for IPN titled “Dombrobskis: Moldova’s good pace in Eurointegration should be justly appreciated”. Valdis Domvrovskis had been in Moldova on an official visit on February 20, 2013.