The Estonian President Lennart Meri had a meeting with the Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic of France, in the Palace of Élysée in Paris today. The forthcoming European Union and NATO summits, as well as the situation in Kosovo and in Russia and the bilateral relations between the two countries were discussed.

President Chirac recognised Estonia“s success in the accession to the EU and saw no problems in this process. As President Chirac said, the crisis resulting from the resignation of the European Commission does not have the significance the media has attributed to it. Tomorrow, a new President will be nominated to the European Commission; the nomination of the new Commissioners will follow later. According to Chirac, the main theme will be Agenda 2000 or the financing of the Commission, and the common agricultural policy, although the decision would probably not be reached. As President Meri said, Estonia is interested in when Latvia, who has made successful preparations, would be included in the negotiations process. According to Chirac, if the new report to be published on the Helsinki Summit at the end of the year will give a positive evaluation to Latvia, Latvia will be included in the negotiations.

Speaking of the plans for the NATO enlargement, Chirac mentioned his meeting with the US President Bill Clinton a month earlier, who had also confirmed that the doors to NATO would not stay closed. The French President expressed to President Meri France“s firm support to NATO enlargement and also to the accession of the three Baltic States. President Meri also mentioned that last year the major Estonian parties had informed him of their promise to increase the proportion of the national defence expenditure in the future.

Speaking of the events in Kosovo, President Meri said that small nations always pay attention to the problems of another small nation and therefore Estonia is very worried about the events in Kosovo. President Chirac also expressed his concern for the situation of the Albanians, and said that NATO“s interference would obviously be inevitable, as the last attempts of the special envoy Richard Holbrooke to normalize the situation have also failed.

As President Chirac said, the situation in Russia is very complicated; he also appreciated the ethnic minorities“ policy of Estonia, which in his words has been elegant and also fruitful.

President Meri presented to the French President the invitation to visit Estonia, which President Chirac accepted.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, March 23, 1999

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