President Lennart Meri, who is celebrating his 70th birthday today, has received many congratulations from Estonia and abroad, also from Heads of State.

Congratulations have arrived from Elisabeth II the Queen of England, from Andrew, Prince of York, and from the Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Leonid Kutshma, President of Ukraine, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Paavo Lipponen, the Prime Minister of Finland, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, and Nils Helveg Petersen, the Foreign Minister of Denmark, Jacques Chirac, the President of France, and Nicholas Lane, Chairman of the International Relations Commission of the American Jewish Committee.

Congratulations have also arrived from the students and teachers of many Estonian schools, numerous mayors, county governors, municipal councils and municipalities of Estonia, from several organisations in Estonia and abroad, and from the President’s many personal friends.

Congratulations have arrived from Heinrich Mark, preserver of the continuity of Estonia, Keijo Virtanen, Rector of the Turku University, Mauno Koivisto and Mrs. Tellervo Koivisto, Carl Bildt, Algirdas Brazauskas, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the Finnish diplomat Max Jakobson, the Finnish General Ehrnrooth, Metropolitan Stephanos of Tallinn and all Estonia, Patriarch Aleksius, Irma and Kai Laitinen, Finnish Writers Union, Taina and Jaakko Paavela, the Archbishop Johannes of Finland, the Noarootsi Union in Sweden, from Kalju Lepik and the Union of Estonian Writers Abroad, the composer Arvo Pärt and Mrs. Nora Pärt, the Honorary Consul of Estonia Jochen Kirchhoff, and many others.

Hundreds of telegrams have arrived and still arrive from Estonia and all over the world.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, March 29, 1999

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