Mr President,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am happy to be able to welcome you, Mr President, and Mrs Göncz on behalf of the Estonian people, my wife and myself in springtime Tallinn.

You are the first Hungarian president to visit the Republic of Estonia. At the end of the 20th century, distances have ceased to exist. The last six years have filled this sentence with a real content. As well as provided its reciprocal: more often than by politicians, the integrity of the world is perceived as a matter of course perhaps by those who don't engage in politics and who the recent socialist usage referred to as ''the simple people''.

There are exceptions to the integral world, however, where integrity and unity are greater than in the rest of the world. The relations of Estonia with Hungary and Finland is one such exception. The affinity of our languages, our admiration for your culture - so different in its temperament and yet so close, but above all our empathy with your political fate both on good and evil days - all this is a matter of course for Estonia and Estonians, because it is part of our world perception, of the Estonian's identity.

This is a wonderful psychological basis for the further shaping of our relations. The formalization and practical realization of these relations was undertaken by our states as far back as the early Twenties, when a trade agreement was signed between Estonia and Hungary on the 19th of October 1922 in Tallinn and Article 1 of that agreement declared mutual relations based on a treatment ''given to citizens of a most favoured nation''. That agreement, with its 24 articles, a supplement, and later additional protocols, was a model document of those days, done in the spirit of a yearning for a European Union which is so typical of small nations.

The Finno-Ugric cultural congresses between the two world wars reinforced that mentality.

I am confident that your state visit to Tallinn will stimulate new agreements, including a free trade agreement, which will be a natural step on our common road to the European Union.

Mr President,

it is highly appropriate to reflect on the long, persistent and comprehensive work done by the Finno-Ugrian scholars and cultural agents to clarify the facts of genesis of the Finno-Ugric peoples, to trace the history of our peoples, to study the Finno-Ugric languages, to analyse the current social and cultural status of the Finno-Ugric peoples.

History has shown different sides of its face in the shaping of the fate of Finno-Ugric peoples.

Having arrived in Pannonia eleven centuries ago, the Hungarians have played a considerable role in shaping the politics of Europe, incuding that of Estonia, in the days of Stephan Batori. But the map of Finno-Ugric peoples also includes peoples that are already extinct or on the verge of extinction.

We know about the efforts and strivings of those peoples. Therefore it is a moral duty of Estonians, Hungarians and Finns to give spiritual assistance to our easterly relatives through cultural contacts, as long as they still stand in defence of their identity, as long as they are still trying to protect their languages and cultures.

While joining European and global structures, linking our democratic development to the membership in the European Union and NATO, we wish to take along into European politics our own vision and our own concepts. We are obliged and entitled to do so by our experience: we have directly experienced the dangers emerging from unification, we have heard with our own ear the last of the Kamassians(?), Klaudia Plotnikova, who was left with the possibility to speak her mother tongue only with her God.

European history has demonstrated over the centuries how important a factor the cultural potential and political will of small peoples has been.

Mr President,

I am sincerely pleased that we have had an opportunity to compare notes on security policy and to jointly devise further activities at a time that is truly revolutionary for Europe. We shall continue that tomorrow and the day after.

The special sensitivity of small nations adds weight and cogency to our views.

I can't help saying that Estonia has always been fascinated by a special spirituality of Hungary. Your literature has been a very important mental factor for us Estonians for over a century. In the distant days of my academic studies at Tartu, my best friends included a translator of Petöfi, Ellen Niit, and a composer who set him to music, Eino Tamberg.

In so saying I imply that the feelings of the people here during your visit are brotherly.

All the Estonian people join me in wishing your country progress and prosperity, a dynamic stride into the 21st century.

I invite everybody to raise their glasses in honour of the Republic of Hungary, to the health of the Hungarian President and his spouse.

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