President of the Republic at the Gala Dinner given by President of the Republic of Poland and Mrs. Kwasniewski in honour of President of the Republic of Estonia and Mrs Helle Meri
28.04.1998

Your Excellence President Kwasniewski,
Dear Mrs. Kwasniewski,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

My wife and I and all the Estonian officials are truly pleased to visit your country again this spring. We have already experienced Polish hospitality and the friendly support of Poland for Estonia. We appreciate it greatly. The mutual emotions that we share support the agreements and plans born during this visit.

Poland and Estonia have a common political meridian that begins with Finland in the north and Turkey and the Ukraine in the south.

For fifty years the Stalinist totalitarianism has tried to erase the notion of the meridian from the consciousness of the world and Europe, and from our consciousness, replacing it with the monopoly of the east-west confrontation, the good and the bad points of the compass. The country that is restoring itself must above all restore and clarify its positions in time and in space. It is true about both Poland and Estonia. It is rarely mentioned in Poland or Estonia because there is nothing more difficult than to trying to define oneself. Knowing you, Mr President, I know that you agree with me. In today's world a country, be it big or small, needs all the points of the compass.

Yet I am happy that there is so little distance between Estonia and Poland on our common meridian. Estonia has for generations watched and where possible followed the fate of Poland. We have watched but also shared the fate of Poland in difficult and less difficult times. There have been distant times when the history of Poland and Estonia has overlapped. There have been times when Poles have carried my university - Tartu University - in their hearts as it was the only university open to them during Russification. Between the world wars the co-operation between Estonia and Poland in politics, economy, national defence and culture became so intense that it was difficult to find a similar example in Europe. It is as difficult to find an equivalent in Europe to the victims that we lost in World War Two. Katõn and Vorkuta are the warning symbols, and concentration camps are our common universities of democracy. Estonians could not help noticing the reason why the ''Big Brother'' called the western border of its territory the Warsaw pact: the magic of words was born out of the fear of Poland or rather out of the fear of the Polish spirit because spirit cannot be chained. Hence Estonians can know how to value the fact that the Berlin wall started to crumble not at the Spree but at the Visla.

Am I talking about history? No, I'm talking about the bearings, about the position of our countries in terms of time and space, which we have to rely on in order to open the door to the future. Man is rather regrettably tended to shut himself in the present tense and the tendency is on the increase. Perhaps it is due to his fear of the future where he is may see the reflection of Armagedon familiar from the past. When I mentioned the rather similar historic experiences of Estonians and Poles I did it only to substantiate the similar traits in our future vision. Estonia senses her close link with Poland in shaping the future. Every successful step that Poland takes in the integration with the European Union and with NATO support Estonia and vice versa: Poland can be sure that Estonia can proceed towards her foreign policy priorities with the matter-of-fact attitude characteristic to Nordic peoples, and to be a reliable partner for Poland on our common political meridian.

Integration is mutual, similar to love. Estonia has never left Europe but Europe has cast down her eyes and left Estonia and the principles of the NATO. Some European statesmen try to keep an embarrassed silence about it. Finding itself is difficult and painful for Europe and the experience on Poland is therefore particularly valuable for Estonia. Estonia is watching your constructive and at the same time demanding attitude in shaping European and world policies with a great deal of attention. Estonia has an optimistic, I'd even say self-confident attitude, but it results not from insufficient sense of the reality but rather from her faith in democracy. The importance of ideas does not depend on the size of the country. The world has been cultivating the idea of force for a long time. Europe has learnt since the 20th century that the idea of force confronts the force of the idea. The idea of the European Union and Europe as a united space with the rule of the law dates back to the times of Charlemagne

The coinciding ideas of Estonia and Poland have since the restoration of Estonia's independence been reconfirmed with a series of important agreements. Our co-operation relies on a strong basis of agreements that will be strengthened further with the agreements concluded during my state visit. When we speak about our progressively closer co-operation and about us moving towards the word I would like to remind of the discovery possibilities within the co-operation framework of the Baltic Sea, the Nordic Mediterranean and our common sea. I would particularly like to reiterate the need for a common integrated energy system that we discussed already five years ago.

Mr President, when I greeted your predecessor on my first state visit in the spring five years ago I began my speech with the words - I am proud and I am concerned - I would like to repeat these words today. I am proud that the past five years have been successful for our countries. Our sense of democracy has matured, our economy has strengthened, we are conducting the integration negotiations. I am concerned about the slow expansion of the island of democracy; I am concerned that Europe and the world have even today still so many crisis centres; I am concerned that when the polycentric structure of the world is discussed it too often includes the familiar idea about force as a moral argument, and that the imperial way of thinking seems to be continuous and militant. These are the political realities that accompany us to the next century. But today, similar to five years ago, I would like to say, and due to five years rich in experience stress it even more: experience is our advantage and our strength is that we know the terrible price of carelessness.

Mr. President, Mrs Kwasniewska,

Please allow me to wish you on behalf of the Republic of Estonia, my wife, all the Estonians present here and on behalf of myself good health, good luck and success.

For the thousand-year old and forever young Poland, to your health!