Baltic States – CIS, Estonia, Legislation, Russia, Transport

Estonia is represented at the meeting by foreign ministry deputy chancellor Lauri Bambus and Estonian ambassador in Moscow Jüri Luik.

Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet has said that the border talks will not start from scratch and the content of these talks is not to handle statements made earlier, i.e. the preamble added to the border agreement by the Estonian parliament. Paet said that most likely more than one meeting is needed to get the agreements in force.

Estonian and Russian foreign ministers signed the border agreement between Estonia and Russia in May 2005. The Riigikogu ratified the agreement that summer but added a preamble that states that the new border agreement changes partly the state border line determined with the Tartu Peace Treaty of 1920 but won't affect the rest of the matters regulated by the treaty. Less than a month later Russia announced that it will withdraw its signature from the border agreement claiming that the preamble that Estonia added enables to present territorial claims against Russia. Estonia has repeatedly said that it doesn't have any territorial claims against Russia.