Mr. President,
Mrs. Alma Adamkiene,
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen!

First, let me welcome you, Mr. President, and Mrs. Adamkiene, and the whole Lithuanian delegation to Estonia as is right and proper. We - the two Presidents - have met ten times, but today and tomorrow, my dear friend, your first state visit to Estonia is taking place. Therefore, let me get to the point at once. I have two main messages.

First, I hope that despite the phlegmatic character of Estonians, which is so different from Lithuanian nature, you can feel the Estonian people's rapport with and affinity towards Lithuania and the Lithuanians. Our affinity is deep and lasting. It can not be refuted by external factors - such as deliberate misinterpretations of our politicians' words, or our own inexperience, because it is based on a simple truth: the success of one Baltic State means the success of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, just as the failure of one means the failure of all three. We have used the foreign occupation born of the criminal Hitler-Stalin pact first and foremost as a fig leaf to cover our inefficiency and to rouse the sympathy for our losses and suffering. It is by no means my intention to reduce its significance, but today we ought to admit that even a fig leaf has two sides. The reverse of the Hitler-Stalin pact should remind us that we need a clear vision not to repeat the mistakes that led to the division and re-division of Europe in the bloodiest war of history. To make it brief: the restraint of the sovereignty, or the loss of political or economic independence of one of the Baltic States would mean the same for the other two. I do not mean to say that the Baltic solidarity is based on fear. I mean that the Baltic solidarity is based on our common historical experience. This experience must nourish all our bilateral relations, agreements and co-operation every day. It will have to remain green forever, and we must be its gardeners from day to day; it must be self-evident also for the coming generations, who have never been through the death-mill of small nations. Therefore, I highly appreciate your thought expressed this morning - that we should teach our children in Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian schools to know our common history and culture, our great men and our shared world. Without elementary schools, universities would disappear.

My second message proceeds from the first one. The world knows our priorities. We wish to become members of the European Union and NATO. It troubles me to see our aspirations often depicted as a race on the Olympics stadium, with the resulting conclusion that the silver medal winner is the first of losers. This is an example of primitive thinking, and dangerous as well. Such attitude has nothing in common with reasonable politics. None of us can win on the account of others. We have the opposite obligation - to support each other and one another, to realise our common responsibility to each other and one another. Then, and then only can we all - each of the Baltic States, and all of us taken together - be winners. The over-simplified, perspicuous and convincing image of the race could grow into a threat created by our own imagination, to which we all would remain hostages. Because the finish is not important. What comes after the finish is important.

So what do we have waiting for us after the finish?

Another finish.

We bring values to the EU and NATO that have never become too common in the world. We are indeed not going there to beg, but to give as well. We have no clear idea of the value of our own historical experience yet, and have been quite ham-fisted in sharing it with the world. For instance, the ability of small cultures to absorb the influence of major cultures and to become stronger, not dissolved. Europe, the United States of America, Canada and other partner states are on the threshold of this discovery. The diversity of attitudes is fruitful in every laboratory, but the greatest productive power on the world scale. Because assimilation of attitudes is the death of technology, culture, and creative power, as the two most powerful totalitarian regimes of this century and their countless victims have proved.

Or - another example - the integration of small countries such as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia into international organisations will hopefully result in increased adherence to principles, and force the egoism - politely called Realpolitik - to retreat. Small countries respond to any danger faster than the great ones, they are more vulnerable and therefore more sensitive. Small countries are the barometers of political climate. The barometer, if my memory is accurate, was born with Torricelli's void. Today's Torricelli's void is the lack of security, not a natural phenomenon, but a result of the deficiently applied democratic principles - equality of rights, sovereignty, the right to choose one's own path, one's own partners, and one's own institutions for self-realisation - in international communication.

And naturally, both Estonia and Lithuania are approaching NATO with their own capital. This is our better knowledge of Russia, our sympathy to Russia's trials and tribulations of self-discovery, and our conviction that the peoples of Russia are able to build their own future. Unlike our partners in the West, we were convinced that Russia's democratic self-discovery could not happen overnight and by a decree. Today, it is time to say that we do not think that the mechanisms of democracy and market economy are fatally alien to Russia. As small Central European countries, we are better judges of the time factor in Eastern Europe, and this is another of our contributions to the future of stable and safe Europe.

Mr. President,
Mrs. Adamkiene,

today's clouded sky has no symbolic value. The sky over Estonia and Lithuania is cloudless, and Estonia receives you with all the warmth of our hearts. I know you know this - and feel true gratitude.

To your health, Mr. President, and to the Republic of Lithuania.

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