On October 21, a special dinner organized by the Boston Global Forum (BGF) and its AI World Society program, served as the occasion to bestow on former President of Latvia (1999-2007) and current President of World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid (WLA-CdM), Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the World Leader for Peace and Security award for her solutions and initiatives for the Baltic region, Europe, and the world.
Through videoconference, Michael Dukakis, former Governor of Massachusetts (1975-1979; 1983-1991) and Chairman of the BGF, underlined Vike-Freiberga’s merits for recivieng this prize: “You have had a rich career, serving for two terms as President of Latvia at the time it joined the European Union (…) You have been a leading voice in strengthening the Baltic region, most continuously but not solely through the Riga Conference, which you founded in 2006, and meets annually to discuss foreign policy issues”.
As master of ceremonies, Laura Chinchilla, former President of Costa Rica (2010-2014) and current Vice President of WLA-CdM, accompanied Dukakis’s remarks by stating that “we, as members of World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid, feel very proud of this well-deserved distinction” to Vike-Freiberga’s life and work.
Upon accepting the award, President Vike-Freiberga thanked the BGF for honoring her as World Leader for Peace and Security for a second consecutive year, while calling for “more fundamental research on the impact of Artificial Intelligence in society and democracy”, for us to be prepared for the implications of the digital transformation.