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President of the Republic meets with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Denmark

31.08.2009

The global economic recession and possible ways for overcoming it were discussed in length at the meeting. President Ilves assured that Estonia is working hard to adopt the euro, which represents an important benchmark for the future development of the co President Toomas Hendrik Ilves met today in Kadriorg with the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Per Stig Møller, who has arrived in Estonia on a working visit.

The global economic recession and possible ways for overcoming it were discussed in length at the meeting. President Ilves assured that Estonia is working hard to adopt the euro, which represents an important benchmark for the future development of the country.

When speaking about the future of NATO and the development of a new strategic concept for the alliance, the Estonian Head of State stressed that there are three key words, which summarise the future of NATO: capability, reliability and visibility. He also added that “for the alliance in general, it is important to find a balance between its old and new functions. For Estonia, on the other hand, NATO’s readiness to ensure Estonia’s security and protection is the most important.”

President Ilves and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Møller, also discussed NATO’s most important international operation in Afghanistan, where both Estonian and Danish defence force members area are serving in the highly tumultuous Helmand province.

“NATO, the UN and also the European Union can be successful in Afghanistan and the country can find stability, as many of the contributors are ready to make extra efforts both in civil and military spheres and towards their more effective co-ordination,” President Ilves said.

When discussing the Baltic Sea Strategy, the Estonian Head of State expressed his hope that it will be adopted at the European Union Council meeting in October: “The implementation of the activities that are specified in the Baltic Sea Strategy, both in the spheres of environment and competitiveness, will become an important issue at that time.”

President Ilves and Mr. Møller also discussed energy security issues; energy security needs to be enhanced by establishing additional energy supply links between the Baltic and the Nordic countries and creating a common Nordic-Baltic energy market; in a wider perspective, the need for the liberalisation of European energy and, above all, its gas market is becoming quite apparent.”

“For establishing and securing a transparent EU domestic market, which offers equal opportunities, it is necessary to have the opportunity to regulate electricity imports from third countries. This is required to limit the competitive advantages which are available to manufactures that do not observe EU standards and climatic objectives, as well as to achieve the ambitious global climatic objectives,” said President Ilves.


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