Estonia takes over the Chairmanship of Baltic Cooperation

Starting from today, Estonia is the Chairman of the Baltic Cooperation for the next 12 months. The chairing country coordinates cooperation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the Baltic Council of Ministers and the Baltic Assembly.

“Estonia will concentrate primarily on intensifying security and defence cooperation, and developing regional energy market and transport connections,” Foreign Minister Sven Mikser introduced the aims of Baltic Cooperation this year.

“In the current security situation it is very important that the Baltic states work together to increase their security and economic well-being,” Mikser emphasised. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are good friends who have a lot of experience to share with each other, and close cooperation will only help strengthen these relations,” the minister added.

Chairmanship of the Baltic Cooperation rotates once a year at the beginning of each calendar year. The tasks of the chairing country include coordinating the cooperation of the three countries’ governments as well as their parliaments.

The first steps to establish this kind of cooperation were taken already in the 1920s, after all three countries had become independent. Perhaps the proudest moment of the Baltic states’ united efforts came in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when in fight to regain independence, the Baltic Way, organised on 23 August 1989, gained worldwide attention. Soon following the re-independence, fora for intergovernmental and parliamentary cooperation were created for developing trilateral cooperation.


Additional information:

Armo Vask
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Communication Department
[email protected]
(+372) 637 7618
(+372) 5666 8581