Ilves admits being Baltic is not so bad

TALLINN - In a dramatic reversal of earlier comments about Estonia being a Nordic rather than a Baltic state, Estonian Foreign Minister Toomas Hendrik Ilves has estimated Estonia's relations with Latvia and Lithuania as being much closer than with most other countries.

At a discussion on foreign policy issues held in the Parliament on May 3, Ilves said that although national security and European integration are and will continue to be of major concern for Estonia, the country is successfully developing bilateral relations with states outside the EU and NATO.

"Relations with Latvia and Lithuania, thanks to their proximity and common interests in many spheres, are actually much closer and deeper than with most other nations," admitted Ilves.

It would be natural to be maintaining good, intensive working relationships with neighbors, he added.

"On the other hand, relations between the Baltic republics are trilateral."

The latest agreements with Estonia's southern neighbors, signed last year, concern the protection of classified information, mutual academic recognition of educational diplomas, the creation of a common higher education space in the three countries, and protection of the victims and witnesses of crime.

Ilves, a member of the Moderates, one of the three parties in Estonia's ruling coalition, incensed Latvians and Lithuanians last September when he proudly announced at the Baltic Development Forum in Malmo, Sweden, that "Estonia is a Nordic rather than a Baltic country and is developing faster than its neighbors."

The minister dug up a series of export statistics in an effort to prove his statement. Ilves said that a third of Estonian exports go to Finland, 18 percent to Sweden, 7 percent to Latvia and a little over 2 percent to Lithuania. This argument alone proved Estonia belonged to Scandinavia, he argued.

The statement annoyed business leaders in the Baltic region, who said it endangered business relations between the three countries. It also ingrained the image of Estonians in the minds of Latvians and Lithuanians as being cold elitists.

Ilves was afterwards severely reprimanded by Prime Minister Mart Laar.

At the May 3 meeting Ilves also said he thought relations with Russia were slowly moving in a positive direction, although without any significant breakthroughs.

Estonia's movement towards the European Union cannot be called a rush, according to Ilves.

"I'd like to remind you that it has taken us more than three years to close barely three-fifths of the EU's chapters, which clearly refutes all claims that we are moving ahead at too fast a pace," said Ilves.

The Estonian foreign minister left Estonia for Strasbourg, France, on May 10. He traveled to Berlin on May 7 to 8, and Helsinki on May 9.

All of the trips focus on EU enlargement, the latest meeting involving European foreign ministers' discussions on problems in the Balkans and Chechnya.