The name of the Republic of Latvia originates from the national language, meaning "armor", "metal clothing", and it is a parliamentary republic country located in the northeastern part of Europe. It is close to the Baltic Sea in the west and is called “three countries near the Baltic Sea” together with Estonia in its north and Lithuania in its south. It neighbors with Russia and Belarus in the east and has a total area of 64,589 square kilometers.

Latvians belong to the Baltic and are culturally close to Lithuanians. Latvian belongs to the Indo-European language family. Latvia is a country with unitary system with 109 municipalities and 9 municipalities.

Latvia was once an union republic of the Soviet republics. Latvia's economic reform has completely changed the old economic model of the former Soviet Union and finally established a Western-style capitalist market economy. In 1991, Latvian declared its independence from the Soviet Union. On May 1, 2004 it formally joined the European Union. On March 29, 2004 it became a member of the NATO, and on December 21, 2007  became a member of the Schengen Convention. On January 1, 2014, Latvia became the 18th member of the euro zone.