This morning President Lennart Meri called Valdas Adamkus, who has won Lithuania's presidential election, and congratulated him on his election as President.

The Estonian President stressed the importance of continued cooperation between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and invited President-Elect Adamkus to a state visit to Estonia in response to his own state visit to Lithuania last summer. Mr Adamkus thanked him for the invitation.

Adamkus congratulated Estonia on being invited to the first round of European Union enlargement talks. According to Adamkus, one of the three Baltic countries was bound to make it first to the negotiations, and since it happened to be Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will have to catch up faster.

In their telephone conversation President Meri and Valdas Adamkus, who will take office as the Lithuanian President at the end of February, recalled their previous meetings as well as their mutual acquaintances from the history of Estonian and Lithuanian diplomacy.

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