President of the Republic on the occasion of Third Ministerial Session of the Council of the Baltic Sea States and the Official Dinner given by the President of Estonia for the Foreign Ministers of the Baltic Sea States and the Vice President of the Europ
24.05.1994

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Two years ago in Copenhagen, in my former capacity as Foreign Minister of Estonia, I had the honour and the pleasure of being one of the founders of the Council of the Baltic Sea States. At the official dinner given on that occasion by the then-Foreign-Minister of Denmark, my good friend Mr. Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, I recall Uffe reading from a dusty old paper he had dug up from the Danish foreign Ministry archive. That old paper was an official note from Estonia dating back to the early-1920s which proposed setting up something very similar to what we have in the Council of the Baltic Sea States today. I was of course gratified that Uffe had found such a relic from the past but also saddened by this indirect reminder of the theft and destruction of the archives of my own foreign ministry, which I was then just beginning to painstakingly rebuild.

Now, little more than two years later, the situation in the region has changed radically. The prediction made then by Ellemann-Jensen that most of the Council's members would be full members of the European Union or closely associated with it within a decade no longer seems visionary. Indeed, the reality of the rapid success of economic and political reforms in the three Baltic states and Poland and the successful reorientation of trading patterns towards greatly increased interaction with EU states is now a fact. The importance of the European Commission's participation in the Council of the Baltic Sea States can only increase as the states of the region get closer to the EU. I don't think I'm being overly optimistic to predict that after the 1st of January 1995, half of the Council's members, (Denmark and Germany plus Finland, Norway and Sweden), will be full members of the EU and of the remaining five, four, (Poland plus Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), will be associated members on track to full membership in the Union.

The Russian Federation's negotiations with Brussels on a EU Partnership and Cooperation agreement is close to completion. The political and economic integration of Russia with Europe, and perhaps especially and first of all those subregions of Russia which have so far participated most actively in the Baltic Sea cooperation, that is St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad, (Königsberg), remains a top priority for Estonia and should, for the sake of regional and global security, remain on or near the top of the agenda for Europe. The complete withdrawal of all remaining Russian forces from Estonia and Latvia without further delay, and at the latest by 31 August of this year will help facilitate Russian's integration with Europe and participation in various European structures. Together with your chairman, Mr. Jüri Luik, I held talks with the Foreign Minister of Russia, Mr. Andrei Kozyrev in order to seek a breakthrough to end the stalemate in the withdrawal negotiations. This dialogue will, I sincerely hope, continue intensively at a high level and soon produce real and tangible results.

Multilateral relations, as Sir Leon Brittan noted in his keynote speech earlier this evening, can never be a substitute for good bilateral relations. But as our world becomes evermore interlinked and interdependent, successful bilateral relations will more and more come to depend on well-functioning and efficient multilateral bodies. The Council of the Baltic Sea States is proof positive of this axiom and I am proud and honoured that the 3rd Ministerial Session is taking place under Estonian chairmanship in Tallinn today and tomorrow. I wish you every success in your deliberations.

Long live Baltic Sea Cooperation!