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The President of the Republic met the Chairman of the Hungarian Parliament11.09.2002
Late this afternoon, President Arnold Rüütel on his state visit to Hungary met with the Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament, Ms Katalin Szili, to discuss with her the chances of developing inter-parliamentary relations between our two countries. Katalin Szili said: "Hopefully the visit of the Estonian Head of State will help to strengthen our ties which, unfortunately, in the recent years have not developed like we had hoped. We wanted the exchange of information to become more systematic and the contacts between the parliamentary committees to advance. The Chairman of the Estonian Riigikogu has got an invitation from us and we hope due to its acceptance to enliven our co-operation." Katalin Szili informed the guests of the plans of the Hungarian Parliament`s autumn session just started, in which, according to her, the issue of European integration was one of the priorities. "On top of that, the Parliament of Hungary will direct its efforts towards developing the links with the parliaments of our neighbouring countries," she noted.
President Rüütel said that, in his estimation, the information received was of great importance to the future co-operation and promised, after having returned home, to discuss with the Chairman of the Estonian Parliament possibilities to deepen the co-operation. In addition, the Estonian Head of State thanked Hungary for its full support to Estonia's accession to NATO, one further testimony to which were also the meetings of Tarmo Kõuts, the Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces, today in Budapest.
President Rüütel emphasized that joint activities of the parliaments of candidate countries were only natural prior to the European Union's enlargement. "Estonia still has to negotiate complicated fiscal and agricultural issues and here our two countries definitely have common interests to express," President Rüütel said.
As the Estonian Head of State observed, the cordial contact born during the today's meeting with President Ferenc Mádl and the lack of time caused by a multitude of talking points proved that kindred peoples had a natural need and disposition for talks with each other. Parliament's Speaker Katalin Szili added: "Nations, notably the small nations, can face totally new challenges of the 21st century only in effective co-operation with each other. Today's meetings of the Estonian Head of State in Budapest have demonstrated that Estonia and Hungary have a very good disposition for that."
Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, September 11, 2002
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