Lithuanian president congratulates Karis on election as Estonian president

  • 2021-09-01
  • BNS/TBT Staff

VILNIUS – Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda on Tuesday congratulated Alar Karis on his election as Estonia’s president.

During the phone conversation, the Lithuanian leader expressed hope for productive cooperation in the future and invited the president-elect of Estonia to pay a bilateral visit to Lithuania, the presidential office said in a press release.

“I hope that Lithuania and Estonia will continue their successful collaborative work to ensure the security of the Baltic region, achieve prosperity and stability across the region and in the world,” Nauseda said.

The Lithuanian president also invited Estonia’s president-elect to the Baltic Presidential Summit to be hosted by Lithuania in fall.

The Estonian parliament – the Riigikogu – on Tuesday elected Alar Karis, director of the Estonian National Museum and former head of the National Audit Office, as the next president of Estonia.

Karis, 63, received 72 votes in the secret ballot.

He was nominated by all 25 members of the Center Party group and all 34 members of the Reform Party group.

Karis, born in 1958, is a molecular geneticist and developmental biologist who embarked on an academic career after graduating from the veterinary department of the Estonian University of Life Sciences and became professor in 1999. He served as rector of the Estonian University of Life Sciences from 2003-2007 and as rector of the University of Tartu from 2007-2012.

He was appointed Estonia's auditor general in March 2013 and, after completing his tenure, as director of the Estonian National Museum in October 2017.