President of Latvia Vaira Vike-Freiberga congratulated the new President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves in Riga Castle today who had started his office on 9 October and had arrived to Latvia on his first official foreign working visit.

During the meeting the Presidents confirmed that they want to continue the close friendship between Latvia and Estonia as well as the close bilateral and trilateral relations among the Baltic States within the EU and NATO co-operation. President Ilves stressed that at the moment he sees wide and significant co-operation possibilities among the three Baltic States in defending common positions within the EU and NATO. As one of the most vivid examples of the joint position of the three Baltic States the nomination of Vaira Vike-Freiberga as a common candidature to the post of the UN Secretary-General was mentioned. Vaira Vike-Freiberga repeatedly thanked Estonia for providing support in the declaration of the principles important for all three Baltic States and defending them on the global scale.

Big attention was paid to the expected NATO Summit in Riga stressing its significance in the transformation of the organization as well as the issues of the EU future including the foreign policy, energy security and EU neighbouring relations.