Baltic States – CIS, Cooperation, Culture, Estonia, Russia

The mayor of Tallinn pointed out that this is the 20th time for a meeting between officials from the two cities to take place.

"The programs of these meetings have always included cultural events, but also substantive meetings where representatives from various fields discuss cooperation projects and plans for the future," Kolvart said according to spokespeople for the Tallinn city government.

He said that this time, sectoral meetings took place in the areas of public utility services and education.

"We are gradually beginning to think also about how to prepare for the Tallinn meetings in St. Petersburg, where the program could be more extensive still in order for more meetings for representatives of different specialties to take place and more contacts to be established. 

However, regardless of the frequency of meetings between representatives of St. Petersburg and Tallinn, contacts between the two cities are taking place all the time at different levels. Theaters, universities, museums, libraries and, what's the most important -- people are communicating between themselves. I believe that this is how we can move forward as well," the mayor added.

At Friday's meeting information was exchanged about latest developments in both cities and plans for future cooperation discussed. After the meeting cooperation agreements were signed between several institutions of Tallinn and St. Petersburg and a volume of essays on cultural and historical ties between the two cities titled "Sankt-Peterburg -- Eesti" presented.