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Discussions at the meeting between President Ilves and the Polish Head of State focused on bilateral cooperation

04.08.2008

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves’s working visit to Poland, which started on 1 August, continued Saturday in Wisla where the Estonian Head of State met with Polish President Lech Kaczyński.

The main topic at the meeting between the two heads of state was a discussion about the maintenance and development of the good cooperation between Estonia and Poland. “We are firm allies based on our similar interests and joint activities within the framework of NATO and the European Union,” President Ilves noted. “In both the EU and NATO, Poland has become the central consolidating power for many issues, for instance in the case of Georgia and Ukraine,” President Ilves said adding that the results of the NATO Bucharest Summit were made possible thanks to such cooperation.

Of the topics related to the European Union, the possibilities for progressing with the Lisbon Treaty were discussed at length.

Other topics at the meeting between Presidents Ilves and Kaczyński included various regional cooperation issues, such as energy and the Via Baltica, as well as the Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, which is a priority for Sweden, the next country to assume the EU Presidency, as well as an important topic for both Estonia and Poland.

In Warsaw on Friday, President Ilves presented the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana to Andrzej Wajda, famous Polish director and creator of the film Katyn. The Estonian and Polish Heads of State also participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Warsaw military cemetery.

Yesterday, Presidents Ilves and Kaczyński participated in a formal ceremony at the Warsaw Uprising Museum. The Estonian Head of State also placed flowers on the grave of Bronisław Geremek, the famous Polish historian and politician who recently died. Bronisław Geremek was President Ilves’s colleague both as a Foreign Minister and in the European Parliament. “We owe thanks for the freedom of Europe to many people like Bronislaw,” the Estonian Head of State wrote in his message of condolence to the Polish President.

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