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The President of the Republic met with the Danish Prime Minister02.05.2005
 President Arnold Rüütel today at Kadriorg met with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The meeting addressed the Estonian-Danish relations and the transatlantic cooperation; the Head of Estonian state introduced also his viewpoint concerning the Estonian-Russian relations.
Talking about the Danish-Estonian relations, Prime Minister Rasmussen noted that the Danish entrepreneurs operating in Estonia considered Estonia as a stable and trustworthy economic environment. In his words, there were certainly more opportunities to intensify the bilateral cooperation, and highlighted the topic of renewable energy resources as an important example. President Rüütel acknowledged the progress of Denmark in the development of that particular field and said that Estonia had a lot more work to do in that area. Both, the head of Estonian state and the head of Danish government considered the planned Türisalu wind park as a good example of developing Estonian-Danish cooperation in the utilisation of renewable energy.
Both sides accepted that already now, on the first anniversary of being in the European Union, Estonia's membership could be considered successful. According to the Danish Prime Minister, the enlargement of the European Union was an historical event that ended the Cold War. "The end of WWII meant for Estonia and the other Baltic states a new occupation and not the liberation. Therefore, I understand your decision not to go to Moscow on May 9. In order to avoid mistakes in the future, we have to know the full truth about the past. It is clear that the present Russian leaders can not take the responsibility for the mistakes made by the previous leaders, but nevertheless, the mistakes made in the past have to be recognised," Prime Minister Rasmussen said.
In the words of the President of the Republic, Estonia recognised the essential role of Russia in the defeat of Nazism. "We wish to have good-neighbourly relations with Russia on all levels. I believe that Russian leaders' objective assessment of what has happened in history would considerably facilitate the democratisation of Russia. The request of Estonia is in line with the UN decision to declare May 8 and 9 Days of Reconciliation. The reconciliation that happened in Europe after the end of WWII is an example worth to be followed. It seems that also the general public in Russian is more and more supporting that idea," the head of Estonian state noted.
The Danish Prime Minister expressed hope that the forthcoming summit of the Baltic states and the United States of America would facilitate the further development of transatlantic cooperation, and briefly introduced the Danish plan consisting of 39 proposals on that topic. President Rüütel assessed from the Estonian viewpoint the current situation in transatlantic relations as positive, and pointed out the Estonian Defence Forces' mission in Iraq as a good example.
Public Relations Unit of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, May 2, 2005
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