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"Leaders promote Estonia abroad", The Baltic Times, 23 January 2013

23.01.2013

TALLINN - President Toomas Hendrik Ilves was away on business this week, scheduled to speak on Tuesday and Wednesday at three international events in which he was to analyze Europe's future, the Nordic and Baltic States' IT challenges and European Union data protection topics, reports Public Broadcasting.

Ilves is the main speaker at the European Policy Center series of lectures discussing European visions: 'Visions for Europe: making the best out of crisis?' where he speaks about the future of the European Union and euro area.

On Wednesday Ilves was to hold the opening speech at the Baltic Development Forum and Microsoft seminar 'Empowering the Nordic-Baltic Economy - and inspiring Europe,' where the president focuses on the IT success of Nordic and Baltic states and upcoming challenges of the digital era.

In the afternoon, Ilves was to hold the opening speech at the European Parliament conference 'Building the Digital Fortress: a Toolkit for Cyber Security,' where he speaks about the privacy of cyber space, cyber crime and ethical issues of data protection. Ilves also meets with Norwegian administration, reform and religious affairs minister Rigmor Aasrud. Prime Minister Andrus Ansip met on Monday in London with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to discuss defense cooperation, the NATO mission in Afghanistan and issues connected to the European Union.

Cameron announced among other things that the UK will join the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence located in Tallinn. Ansip said that the relations between Estonia and the UK are very good, thanks to the excellent defense cooperation, among other things. He thanked the UK for support in the Baltic air policing duties.

Speaking of the Afghanistan mission, the officials stated that NATO allies have achieved very good cooperative ability in the framework of the mission and the defense cooperation between Estonia and the UK could continue in the future.

The officials also focused on EU matters, especially on development of the EU domestic market.

Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and Prime Minister Ansip will attend the European Union, Latin America and Caribbean states summit in Santiago, Chile this week, reports Aripaev Online. According to the Foreign Ministry, Paet will be in Santiago on Jan. 24-26. He is also scheduled to have bilateral meetings with the foreign ministers of Brazil and Colombia. Ansip will fly to South America on Jan. 24 and will stay there till Jan. 29.

Original article on The Baltic Times webpage.