On Wednesday, at the age of 101, one of the first ambassadors in the restored Latvia, diplomat Aina Nagobads-Ābols, passed away, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Nagobads-Ābols was born on June 9, 1920 in Riga in the family of Ernest Nagobad, a teacher and a fighter for Latvia’s independence. Nagobads participated in the organization of the armed forces in North Vidzeme, was the chairman of the board of the liberated Northern Latvia region, a long-term director of the 2nd city gymnasium of Riga.
After graduating from the 2nd Gymnasium in 1939, Nagobad-Ābols studied medicine at the University of Latvia, but in the autumn of 1944, together with the staff of the University Hospital, he was evacuated to Germany. In 1949, Nagobad-Ābols graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tübingen and married Guntars Ābols. He lived with his family in Morocco and then in Paris.
She worked in the administration of an oil company, was involved in the public activities of the Latvians of Paris, as well as the World Association of Free Latvians.
According to the ministry, thanks to the enterprise of Nagobad-Apple and Apple, after the death of Karl Berend, the clerk of the embassy in Paris in January 1987, most of the post-war archives of the embassy in France were preserved. Now these valuable documents are stored in the National Archives of Latvia.
The diplomatic path began in March 1990, when Anatols Dinbergs, the head of the Latvian diplomatic and consular service, appointed Nagobad-Ābols honorary consul in France. After the full restoration of Latvia’s independence, Nagobad-Ābols was one of the first diplomats to be appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Latvia.
On 18 March 1992, Nagobad-Apple was accredited in France, on 2 June 1993 in Spain and on 30 November 1993 in Portugal. On October 15, 1991, when Latvia was admitted to UNESCO, Nagobad-Ābols brought the national flag of Latvia to the UNESCO General Conference Hall.
From 1992 to 2000, Nagobad-Ābols was also the Permanent Representative of Latvia to UNESCO. She advocated the inclusion of the historical center of Riga in the World Heritage List.
In 1997, the diplomat left the post of ambassador to France and non-resident ambassador to Spain and Portugal. In January 2000, she was awarded the honorary status of Adviser to UNESCO.-
Nagobad-Apple was awarded Class III of the Order of the Three Stars, Class III of the Order of the French Legion of Honor and Class I of the Grand Cross of Merit of Portugal.
In 2019, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkēvičs (JV), establishing a new tradition of presenting an award for a lifetime contribution to Latvia’s foreign policy, awarded the first award to Nagobad-Ābols.
Rinkēvičs also expressed his condolences to the Nagobad-Ābols family. “Today we received a sad message from Paris. The outstanding Latvian patriot and diplomat Aina Nagobads-Ābols has gone to eternity. She embodied the century of Latvian diplomacy. Her wisdom and charm inspired everyone who knew her, “writes Rinkēvičs and expresses his deepest condolences to the diplomat’s relatives,” he wrote on the microblogging site Twitter.
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