Mihkelson: dialogue with Russia is recovering after a gap of six years

Jul 04, 2012

TALLINN – Chairman of the Estonian Riigikogu Foreign Committee Marko Mihkelson said that the meeting of foreign committees of Estonian and Russian parliaments that takes place this week indicates that the dialogue with Russia is recovering, at the initiative of Estonia, after six years of standstill, Postimees writes.

Mihkelson said that the meeting of Riigikogu foreign committee and Russian Federation Council foreign committee starts Thursday morning in Pühajärve, South Estonia, where the cross-border cooperation of states will be spoken about and officials discuss how to enliven the cooperation of parliaments at friendship groups and committees level. "It is time that speakers of the two parliaments met, but naturally that doesn't depend just on us," he said.

Still, the meeting that takes place at the initiative of the Riigikogu foreign committee is a big step towards restoring dialogue. Mihkelson said that the last time the committees met was six years ago, in summer of 2006.

The committees will visit the Kuperjanov battalion, Koidula border railways station and continue the meeting on Friday in Pskov, Russia where relations between Western states and Russia could be discussed.

Mihkelson expressed hope that in the future the committees could meet regularly like in 2003-2006, when they met once a year. He said that by now, the Russian State Duma foreign committee has also accepted the visitation invitation and should visit Tallinn in October or November.

SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:   Delicious   Digg   Reddit   Ask   Facebook   MrWong   Netvouz