| |
 | Speeches | | |
The President of the Republic at the State Banquet at the Royal Palace in Oslo, on April 10, 200210.04.2002
Your Majesty King Harald,
Your Majesty Queen Sonja,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The first day of my and my wife's state visit is drawing to its end. I would like to assure you that this day has been successful. We have had constructive meetings and acquainted ourselves briefly with your wonderful capital. Please, accept our heartfelt thanks for your invitation.
Estonia is visiting Norway. We came here with pleasure, yet we did not come like total strangers, for close and long-standing ties are connecting our countries and people. Three years ago, Estonia had the honour to receive Your Majesties on a state visit to our country, and this contact on the highest possible level deepened the friendly relations between our peoples still more.
Recently I visited the summer capital of Estonia, Pärnu, where you on your state visit to Estonia also have been and I could see that, up to date, the Vanalinna School of Pärnu is proud of you having rung the bell for the first class of the academic year on 1 September 2002. Why not to believe that these children, who heard that ring, are even better at learning now than others.
Your Majesties, what I want to say is that our people can remember your state visit very well.
A couple of days ago, I took from shelf "Kon Tiki" of Thor Heyerdahl, a great Norwegian. Of course, on my present post I haven't got much time for reading books, but still, before going on this visit, I wanted to leaf through "Kon Tiki" once again. In Estonian this book was published in 1957, and it was for us a kind of a messenger. Heyerdahl had made impossible possible and challenged established serious truths. At that time, Estonia was locked up, a country cut off from the outside world. Thus, for us "Kon Tiki" contained a message how to preserve our identity, how to stand up for our truth. It was of great help for us.
Today, for more than ten years now, Estonia is an independent nation again. We are developing rapidly, as we must make up for lost time. During the three years, passed since your last visit, Estonia has become an e-Government, we have made our Tiger leap in information technology, and promoted gene research. I would say that these are the fields, in which Estonia is capable of being an equal partner for Norway. And - we are willing to share our experience.
A new model for co-operation between the Baltic States and the Nordic Countries is being outlined more and more clearly. Today, we have a much stronger common ground than earlier and, at different levels, Baltoscandia is a region developing ever more quickly gaining in importance on the European scale. And in my view, we have good reasons to rejoice in it together.
Let me return to the written word. The Norwegian literature has always been extremely popular in Estonia. Johan Bojer, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Jonas Lied and Sigrid Undset - classics of your popular literature have been translated into Estonian and published in large numbers already before the war. And these days, their works repeatedly have been published anew, also by our exile publishing houses. Ibsen has been played and is being played probably on all Estonian stages. Apparently just the wish to be on one's own, to be independent, is fascinating the Estonians in your literature, and the Estonians have understood it, even reading between the lines. Neither of us has reached an independent statehood easily, and both of us have had to protect our native languages. Yet, we have succeeded in it.
The present day has set us the task to safeguard our security. Estonia has chosen the way of the NATO-membership, at the same time pursuing good relations with all its neighbouring countries. I believe that we already have taken a long step towards NATO and I would like to thank Norway for its support to Estonia in this process.
We hope to conclude our negotiations with the European Union during this year. We are pleased that Norway, without being a member of this Union itself, has understood and backed our aspirations to integrate into the European Union.
Your Majesty King Harald,
Your Majesty Queen Sonja,
We, Nordic people, have a lot in common: our close, harmonious relationship with nature; our ability to observe the sustainable way of life; our conservatism and acknowledgement of our roots. And if we should look back at the history recalling the Hanseatic League and seafarers, the list of our common features would be much longer.
I wish from my heart that the present day's co-operation and friendship between our countries and peoples would find ever more interesting ways of manifestation, joining our nations together closer than so far.
Permit me to raise my glass to the health and prosperity of Your Majesties and all the Norwegians.
|
| |
|
vpk.ee
