A referendum leading to a UK exit from the EU would be "a contest without winners" the Latvian Ambassador has said, on the eve of his visit to Scotland to brief lawmakers on Latvia's leadership of the EU work programme.

The Baltic nation of 2 million people is nearly half way through its six month stint in the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, its first turn in the chair since EU accession in 2004.

Ambassador Andris Teikmanis, who is also on a mission to boost Latvia's business links with Scotland in three-days of engagements in Glasgow and Edinburgh, said: "It's at the discretion of the British people to decide, but at the same time we wouldn't see any winners if Britain were to exit from the EU."

"I believe that the EU will be stronger with Britain, [also that] the UK will have stronger voice in the world as an EU member country."

He declined to say whether he thought a UK referendum on EU membership should trigger a further Scottish independence poll saying: "A clear majority of Scottish people have given their decision on independence and it would not be proper for me to speculate as to what might happen." He did however hold up Scotland's plebiscite "which was closely watched in Latvia" as an exemplary contrast to the shotgun poll following the invasion of Crimea by Russia, Latvia's newly assertive Eastern neighbour.

Latvia, a small nation whose ability to steer the direction of travel in Brussels has been cited by Scottish Government ministers campaigners as a model of potential Scottish influence on the 28-member union, is intending to bolster the EU's position on security in the light of heightened tensions in Eastern Europe.

As well as meeting First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Teikmanis is due to brief the Scottish Parliament's European and External Relations Committee on Wednesday on the priorities of the Latvian presidency, which is organised around the themes of "competitive Europe, digital Europe and engaged Europe". He will also join seminars at Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities.

He said: "The competitive Europe programme is oriented towards the economic recovery plan for the EU in which we are looking for new opportunities to attract investment and loans to bring us back to growth. The centrepiece is the Juncker Plan, the investment plan for Europe. We are currently doing the best we can to finish all the necessary preparation decisions, to launch this plan at the end of our presidency.

"We are working on important issues like capital market unions, which give alternative to banking loans and alternative to investment, we are working on energy union for Europe and bearing in mind the challenging issue with Russia and Ukraine, that gives particular importance to the issue of energy union."

Also next week the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia along with the with Scottish Government and Scots-based Baltic trade specialists Cormack Consultancy are hosting a seminar in Edinburgh entitled Doing Business in Latvia, which will highlight the attractions to overseas investors of a country that has boasted the fastest growing economy in the EU for three consecutive years, following several years of severe self-imposed austerity after a property market-led crash in 2008.

Despite hints of concern that May's UK general election will result in a more Eurosceptic stance at Westminster, Teikmanis aligned himself firmly to the UK-led agenda on institutional and pro-market reform in Brussels, saying: "We are in this sense very much like-minded with our British colleagues, on the open market, the strong market, strong single market within the EU, that's how we see that Europe can come back to growth."

The Latvian presidency is also giving the country the opportunity to leverage the country's advances in digital connectivity and IT skills-building, where it an acknowledged European leader: Teikmanis said: "The EU's digital agenda is of particular interest to Latvia. We have our own good experience of digital solutions and we will push forward digital single market, including the telecoms [deregulation] package, cybersecurity, education and skills with regard to digital solutions. The work has been started already."

Latvia, along with neighbours Estonia and Lithuania have seen their international profiles rise in recent months, as an ex-Soviet states which have moved into the western sphere of influence through membership of NATO. UK defence secretary Michael Fallon recently warned that the Baltic States, with their sizeable Russian-speaking minorities, were vulnerable to destabilisation and potentially invasion by Putin's resurgent Russia.

The ambassador said: "Finally, we are very concerned about the security situation in Europe and we plan to have a review of the European security strategy in the June Council, particularly we will be pushing forward the Eastern Partnership [an EU strategy to engage former Soviet and Soviet-aligned countries] as part of the European neighbourhood policy."