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News in pictures: President Ilves met with Jeb Bush

12.06.2015

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves met with possible Republican candidate for the office of president of the United States of America, Jeb Bush, who visited Estonia at the invitation of our International Centre for Defence and Security to take part in a trans-Atlantic security issues round table and obtain a personal overview of the IT progress of Estonia, economic development and the region's security problems.

President Ilves and Jeb Bush were also among the keynote speakers – along with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and head of Google, Eric Schmidt – at the recent annual conference organised by the Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU). This year, the meeting's slogan was "Go on instead of fearing the future: Reforms for Germany and Europe". President Ilves spoke at the invitation of the organisers of the conference about boosting the competitiveness of the European Union and the creation of jobs in a digital society. He invited Europe to embrace openness and the abolishment of restrictions on digital services, as barriers to the free movement of data mean that the European Union member states will lag behind other countries. He also supported the quick conclusion of a free trade agreement between the EU and the United States of America.

President Ilves and Jeb Bush, who visited Germany and Poland before starting his tour of Europe, discussed the promotion of both digital society as one of the competitive engines and the changed security situation following the intervention of Russia in Ukraine; this places a joint responsibility on all parties to stand united for the values that we share.


Office of the President
Public Relations Department