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The Baltic and Polish Heads of State support Georgia

23.05.2008

At a meeting in Riga yesterday, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Latvian President Valdis Zatlers, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and Polish President Lech Kaczyński discussed the situation in Georgia and the possibilities for the four countries to help Georgia in the future. The Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish Heads of State congratulated Georgia for carrying out free and competitive parliamentary elections. They acknowledged that, according to the initial assessments of observers, the Georgian general elections were conducted according to international standards.

Before the meeting began, President Ilves called Georgian Head of State Mikheil Saakashvili and congratulated him for the victory achieved by his party. At the meeting, the four presidents approved a joint declaration regarding the Georgian elections, which is available on the Internet at www.president.lv.

The presidents stressed their total support for Georgia’s territorial integrity and its sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders. They also called upon the Russian Federation to fulfill its international obligations and avoid steps that would destabilize the situation in the region.

“The European Union must do more to support Georgia,” President Ilves said, “A country that is aspiring toward democratic governance must not be left alone in critical situations.”

Presidents Ilves, Zatlers, Adamkus and Kaczyński also spoke about issues related to the European Union Lisbon Treaty, and about the cooperation of the Baltic Sea countries in the European Union. The Heads of State also discussed their common position for tomorrow’s energy-related summit in Kiev, where the heads of state of Ukraine, Georgia, and Azerbaijan will also participate along with the heads of state that met in Riga yesterday.

According to President Ilves, energy-related cooperation between the European Union and its neighbors is extremely important. “The meeting between four EU member states and three neighboring countries is a good sign of such cooperation.”

The Presidents of Estonia, Latvia, and Poland expressed their condolences to Lithuanian President Adamkus in connection with the death of one Lithuanian soldier and wounding of two others in the Ghori Province of Afghanistan yesterday.

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