Border agreement awaits signing

TALLINN - Currently there is no agreement between Estonia and Russia on the time of signing the border agreements between the two states, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, who is currently in New York, said, reports Public Broadcasting. He confirmed that at the end of last week, the Russian government also gave its principle approval to the texts of the border agreement. “When the time comes, we will have to talk about when it will be possible to sign the Estonian-Russian border agreements. As of this moment, when I am speaking with you here, we haven’t agreed upon it with the Russian side,” said Paet.

Although Paet said that no meetings with Russia are planned to take place while he is in the USA, he didn’t rule out the possibility of perhaps almost accidentally being in the same room with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to talk about the topic.

Postimees wrote on Sept. 24 that if Estonian Foreign Minister Paet, who is in New York to attend the UN General Assembly meeting, meets with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov there, the two ministers may agree upon when Lavrov would come to Tallinn to sign the Estonian-Russian border agreement. Postimees said its sources say that such a meeting has been in discussion via diplomatic channels.