Today, President of the Parliament of Estonia the Riigikogu Jüri Ratas held a video conference with Speaker of the Parliament of Lithuania the Saimas Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen. The Speakers discussed the measures taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, parliamentary cooperation in developing regional projects and support to Belarus.  

“Lithuania is an important bilateral strategic partner to Estonia,” Ratas said. “Our relations are very close. We have several regional projects where we participate and support each other, mainly in the spheres of energy, security or transport.”

Ratas thanked Lithuania for their active participation and coordination in the Baltic Assembly, and in the cooperation of the Nordic Countries and the Baltic States (NB8). “We have to continue our existing excellent parliamentary cooperation in the Baltic and Nordic-Baltic formats as well as bilaterally,” Ratas emphasised.  

The Speaker of the Seimas of Lithuania congratulated Jüri Ratas on his new position. She gave an overview of the measures to fight the coronavirus in Lithuania, and added that she would receive her vaccine today and that from tomorrow, the Parliament of Lithuania would again come together for sittings. Ratas described the organisation of the remote-participation sittings of the Riigikogu to his colleague, and outlined Estonia’s activities during the COVID pandemic. Ratas underlined that it was important to continue the joint vaccine procurements at the European Union level, so that all member states would get the necessary amount of doses and all people could be vaccinated.  

Support of the Baltic States to Belarus was also discussed at the video meeting. Ratas said that the Baltic States were cooperating in supporting the development of civil society and democracy in Belarus both directly and at the European Union level.

Ratas invited his Lithuanian colleague to visit Estonia and, if possible, to attend the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of restoration of independence in Estonia.

Photos (Erik Peinar, Chancellery of the Riigikogu)

Riigikogu Press Service
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