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The Estonian Head of State to participate in a meeting between the US President and leaders from the Central and Eastern European countries in Warsaw

03.06.2014

The President, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, was invited by the Polish Head of State, Bronisław Komorowski, to participate today at a working lunch with the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, and leaders from the Central and Eastern European countries in Warsaw.

The main issues to be discussed at the meeting will include Russia's aggression in shifting the borders in Europe and the resultant crisis in Ukraine, together with energy security, preparations for NATO's autumn summit in Wales and the visibility of a credible alliance presence in Central and Eastern Europe.

This meeting is taking place in an international context that is fundamentally different from the previous meetings in Prague, Warsaw and Bratislava.

For example, four years ago, the Estonian Head of State was able to say the following at the meeting in Prague of 11 Eastern and Central European presidents or heads of government and the US President: "Security in Europe was a problem until the end of the Cold War; this problem has now been resolved with the enlargement of NATO and the European Union. We must now all adopt new ways of thinking, as the future of Trans-Atlantic relations relies upon solving new problems together." Today, the activities of Russia in its annexation of Crimea and support of armed separatists in Eastern Ukraine have fundamentally changed the general security situation in Europe, and this is the starting point for the meeting in Warsaw.

Today's meeting also represents an anniversary – it is 25 years since the first free elections to the Parliament of Poland, which were a landmark in the end of the communist regime in this country.


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