[autom.vertaling] Finland en Estland om samenwerking voort te zetten (en)
"Until now we have been focussed on becoming a member of the EU and of NATO. Now we must think of what we are going to do with our membership," said Siim Kallas, prime minister of Estonia after meeting his Finnish colleague, Paavo Lipponen.
The defence cooperation agreement between Finland and Estonia will expire next year, but that has nothing to do with Estonia's NATO membership, according to Finnish prime minister Paavo Lipponen on Thursday in Tallinn, quoted in Hufvudstadsbladet. Finland has been assisting Estonia in building a national defence, chiefly in the field of training.
Mr Lipponen underlined the fact that Finland will remain alliance free and rely on its national defence forces. At the same time, he stressed the fact that Finland and Estonia have common interests in their relations to Russia and have a three part cooperation programme on issues of health.
The two prime ministers said that a task group would be set up to work out the future cooperation between the two countries.