President Ilves says Estonia and Finland have similar views on EU

Estonia not pushing Finland on NATO issue

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Relations between Finland and Estonia are excellent and close, insisted Estonia’s new President Toomas Hendrik Ilves when he met with President Tarja Halonen in Helsinki on Monday.
      According to Ilves, he and his "good friend" Halonen have similar views, especially concerning the EU.
      While the visit was primarily a courtesy call, Ilves did speak with Halonen and Matti Vanhanen on the European Union, bilateral relations between Finland and Estonia, as well as other international topics. At a press conference Ilves said that he respects Finland’s decision to stay out of NATO.
     
In addition to the EU, the two discussed NATO, which Estonia joined in the spring of 2004.
      On Monday Ilves was asked about a statement that he made in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat on October 8th, that "it would be useful" from a security policy perspective, for the whole Baltic Sea region to be part of NATO.
      At a press conference Ilves pulled back somewhat from that statement, pointing out that at least one Baltic Sea country would probably not want to join NATO "and it isn’t Finland", he said, in an apparent reference to Russia.
      He also reiterated that he does not plan to push Finland to join NATO.
      "Every country will decide itself what the best security solution is", Ilves emphasised. "We will support Finland’s choice, whatever it may be".
      President Halonen was amused by the emergence of the NATO question at the press conference, as she had anticipated it. "Ten points", she said, when her expectation came true.
      Halonen claimed another ten points when journalists asked why President Ilves did not pay his first foreign visit to Finland, as had been the case with his predecessor.
     
Ilves’s first Presidential visit was to Latvia, where he spent Monday morning before moving on to Finland.
      The Latvian news agency Leta quoted Ilves as saying that he paid his first visit to that country "because Latvia was close to his heart".
      Ilves, who lives in the south of Estonia close to the Latvian border, said in Helsinki that he came to Finland "from the airport that was closest to my home."
      On a more serious note he said that people should not practice "Kremlinology", by which he meant trying to find hidden motives for every move.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Estonia´s President-elect Toomas Ilves wants to unite nation (25.9.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat