Estonian president offers support to France for presidency period

07.04.2008

During his meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy the two officials discussed priorities of the French presidency period, results of the NATO summit as well as issues of the European Union's joint energy policy and neighborhood policy, the president's office said.

Ilves wished success to Sarkozy for its presidency of the European Union and offered all-round Estonian support in achieving the aims of the French presidency period.

"Estonia wants a strong and effective European Union, which is impossible without the active participation of France," said Ilves, adding that success of the French presidency meant success for all the member countries.

The presidents found that on the world scale Europe is a strong partner as a united alliance, not as member countries with separate interests, as a result of which it is important to devote with new force to the challenges facing the union. Ilves said that for small countries this was self-evident but in case of joint action also large countries' interests would be covered.

Both the presidents regard it as necessary to increase cooperation in the development of joint energy policy of the European Union.

"Energy policy is very directly connected with security issues and use of energy resources as a foreign policy instrument by certain countries is a reality visible to everyone," Ilves said.

In his opinion it was equally important to agree on common rules, liberalization of the energy market and application of renewable energy sources in order to protect separate energy markets from third countries' unfavorable influences.

Also nuclear power options were discussed at the meeting.

Summing up the results of NATO's Bucharest summit, the two presidents discussed issues connected with operations in Afghanistan.

Ilves expressed his delight at the French decision to send additional forces to Afghanistan. "NATO must not remain the loser in Afghanistan, and I therefore regard it important that unity was shown in that respect at the summit," he said.

The heads of state also spoke about giving NATO membership action plans to Georgia and Ukraine. "To motivate Georgia and Ukraine to continue with democratic reforms it is necessary for the alliance to give a clear message that the question concerning MAP is not "whether" but "when", Ilves underlined.

The presidents also spoke about bilateral military cooperation between the countries.

During the visit, Ilves will also meet with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, President of the European Union delegation of the National Assembly Pierre Lequillier and Senator Denis Badre, who is simultaneously head of the all-party Baltic group in the French Senate. Ilves will also meet with Thierry de Montbrial, President of the French Foreign Policy Institute.

President Ilves will return to Estonia on Tuesday.

Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8814, sise@bns.ee