On the eve of the Day of the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Estonia, the President of the Republic has invited several social figures from Estonia and abroad, who contributed to the restoration of the independence of the Republic of Estonia ten years ago, for a dinner at Kadriorg. Among others, President Meri has invited Arnold Rüütel, Tunne Kelam, Edgar Savisaar and Vaino Väljas. Also Jon Baldvin Hannibalsson, the former Foreign Minister of Iceland, Paul Goble, the Head of the Baltic department of the U.S. State Department, and Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, the former Foreign Minister of Denmark, as well as academician Aleksander Yakovlev and the former Deputy Foreign Minister Fyodor Shelov-Kovedyayev from Russia and Dainis Ivans and Janis Dinevics, leaders of the Latvian popular front at the time, have been invited for dinner.

On Monday, August 20, the President of the Republic will attend the festive concert in the Estonia Concert Hall at 2 PM.

In connection with the passing of ten years from the restoration of the independence of the Republic of Estonia, the President of the Republic has addressed letters to George Walker Bush, the President of the United States of America, as well as the U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, thanking them for America’s non-recognition policy of the Soviet occupation in Estonia. President Meri asked the U.S. President George W. Bush to forward his best regards to his father George Bush, and to thank him for supporting Estonia’s return to the family of the countries of the world in 1991.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, August 17, 2001

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