President Iohannis meets Estonian counterpart, encourages Estonia's involvement in Three Seas Initiative summit preparations

President Klaus Iohannis met on Friday in Warsaw with his Estonian counterpart Kersti Kaljulaid, encouraging on this occasion Estonia's active involvement in preparations for the Three Seas Initiative summit that will take place in Bucharest this September. 

"Regarding regional cooperation, President Klaus Iohannis gave a briefing on the progress of preparations for the Three Seas Initiative summit that will be organized by Romania September 17-18, an event aimed at taking the initiative to the phase of concrete results, based on transport, energy and digital interconnection projects, emphasizing at the same time Estonia's potential role, in the digital area in particular, given its established expertise in this industry. In this context, the President of Romania encouraged an active involvement of the Estonian side in the preparation process, as well as top-participation in the Business Forum, another concrete derivative of the Summit, with the two events running in parallel. Iohannis also invited an important economic presence of Estonian business people at the Forum," the Presidential Administration informed in a release. 

According to the cited source, the President of Estonia confirmed his country's strong support for the goals of the Bucharest Summit and mentioned interest in identifying adequate financing sources for the projects. 

President Klaus Iohannis advocated maintaining and strengthening the transatlantic relationship, with both heads of state expressing their resolve to take international action to this effect. 

The two heads of state also emphasized the important role of multilateralism in keeping international relations balanced. The two Presidents said that the Three Seas Initiative can make a relevant contribution to the transatlantic relationship and to multilateralism. 

President Klaus Iohannis also voiced appreciation for the highly positive bilateral relation, expressing his desire to see it further developing, as 2018 carries a special historic symbolism for both countries, with Romania celebrating the Great Union Centennial, and Estonia marking this year the 100th anniversary of its declaration of independence. 

President Kersti Kaljulaid congratulated Klaus Iohannis on his recently having received the Franz Josef Strauss Award from the prestigious Hanns Seidel Foundation. 

The two Presidents met on the sidelines of the meeting of the Bucharest Nine (B9) format.