President Lennart Meri is going on a visit to the United States on Monday for the signing of the Charter of Partnership among the United States, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Besides the Charter signature ceremony in the White House on Friday, January 16, the visit of the Estonian head of state includes meetings with President Bill Clinton, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, FBI Director General Louis Freeh and Attorney General Janet Reno. Lennart Meri will also take part in a roundtable on economic issues, chaired by Under Secretary of State Stuart Eizenstat.
On Tuesday President Meri will have meetings in New York with Steve Forbes, Publisher, Chairman of Forbes Inc., and other leading business people, and with Jack Hennessy, President of Credit Suisse, one of the world's biggest banks, and other top bankers. On Wednesday President Meri will give talks in Washington: at the European Institute; at a lunch given by Carnegie Endowment and devoted to the security of the Baltic states; and in the Council on Foreign Relations. On Thursday the Presidents of the three Baltic countries will attend a dinner given by the North Atlantic Initiative, a think-tank advocating NATO enlargement, in the American Enterprise Institute.
The Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Presidents will give a joint press conference in Washington. Further, Lennart Meri's schedule includes a meeting with the New York Times columnist William Safire (Jan. 13), an interview to the Washington Post analyst Jim Hoagland (Jan. 15) and a meeting with Radio Free Europe analyst Paul Goble (Jan. 16).
The President will be accompanied on his visit by Jaanus Pikani, Director of the President's Office; Kaja Tael, the President's Foreign Policy Counsellor; Jüri Luik, Estonia's Ambassador to NATO; Indrek Tarand, Permanent Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Sven Jürgenson, Director-General of the Foreign Ministry's Political Department; and Miko Haljas, the Ministry's Third Secretary. The President will return to Tallinn on Monday, January 19.

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