Your Excellency, Mr President!
Honourable Madam Karis!
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen!
I am truly delighted to be with you here tonight. At your Rose Garden. Thank you for the sincere and warm hospitality. Thank you for this historic visit. This is the first time a Latvian president has visited the Ruhnu island.
I must say I’m not the first traveller from Latvia to visit Ruhnu Island. It was exactly 20 years ago that a bear from Latvia rode a block of ice to Ruhnu. There was even a cartoon made after that titled “The bear is coming” (KARU TULEB!). Laima chocolate factory even made a chocolate bear to make up for the troubles.
Bears have lately become a topic of many conversations in Latvia. We have a slight suspicion that at least some of them have migrated from Estonia. We now expect our chocolate compensation.
Ladies and gentlemen,
If the weather is right, we can actually see Ruhnu from Latvia. In all honesty, we see eye-to-eye and understand each other in all weather. We have a lot in common. The fate of Latvians and Estonians has been intertwined for centuries.
We are so alike we get mixed up. There is even a case recorded in history when in February of 1930 conducted its population census. By coincidence, the State Elder of Estonia – Otto August Strandman – and his delegation were also in Latvia at the time. So, they naturally got included in the Latvian population census.
If Estonia conducted its census two years ago, it would have been able to easily include several Latvians in its population.
In 2024, Latvians, including me, had a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the events of Tartu as the European Capital of Culture. And it is my pleasure and honour to invite you to visit Liepāja, which will be the European Capital of Culture in 2027.
Dear friends,
Our joint past also has a Livonian chapter. It is rather symbolic that today we presented the Livonia award to entrepreneurs successfully operating in both Latvia and Estonia. Companies whose natural modi operandi covers both our countries. No borders.
Our history and culture sees no borders either. Last year we marked the five hundred years of book publishing in Latvia and Estonia with a bike ride, crossing border between our countries several times. [It was a little bit hard on our colleagues as we went 40k in the rain.]
We have gone through same perils. We have sought answers to the same questions. How to safeguard our freedom? How to protect our identity? How to defend our language?
Ukraine, too, is currently struggling with the same challenges. Challenges we know all too well. We know what it means to fight for your country. Freedom. Borders must not be changed by force. Each nation deserves the right to determine its future. That is why we support Ukraine wherever and whichever way possible.
Latvia and Estonia forma a strong pillar supporting the Eastern Flank of NATO and European Union. We have desynchronised from Russian and Belarusian energy grid. We continue to make Baltic region safer, stronger and more competitive.
As neighbours do, we tend to compare each other. Have a friendly banter. Sometimes we argue as to who is more digitally advanced, entrepreneurial or athletic. There is this Estonian adage: measure nine times, cut once. Whereas Latvians do the cutting after the seventh measurement already. Latvians also quite often wonder why being so prudent you are still faster than us.
Dear neighbours,
101 years ago, Latvia’s first president Jānis Čakste went on his first state visit. To Estonia. There was even a special issue of a newspaper covering the visit in Estonia.
Let me recap what it said. Latvians and Estonians have been neighbours for ages. That’s our fate. If we were asked to choose a neighbour, we would not know any other nation we would like to see besides us more than Estonians.
Your Excellency, Mr President, Madam Karis,
Tonight, we celebrate our friendship. Our personal friendship. Friendship and brotherhood between Latvians and Estonians.
I would like to raise this glass to You and Your health. To Estonian people. To friendship and prosperity of Estonians and Latvians. To better future for our countries!
