Diplomatic Diary: Ansip is first Estonian prime minister to visit Turkey

18/03/2008

Estonia and Turkey achieved a historic milestone in their relations this week. Also in diplomacy: Bulgaria's parliament speaker visits Greece.

Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip. [Getty Images]

Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip arrived on a historic visit to Turkey on Sunday (March 16th). Talks with counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan focused on politics, defence, trade, and culture, as well as on current regional and international developments. Ansip is the first Estonian prime minister to visit Turkey in the history of the two countries.

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Bulgarian Parliament Speaker Georgi Pirinski began a two-day visit to Greece on Monday (March 17th) at the invitation of counterpart Dimitris Sioufas. His agenda included talks with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and the leaders of parties in parliament.

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Croatian Parliament Speaker Luka Bebic began a two-day visit to Macedonia on Monday (March 17th). This is his first visit to a foreign country since assuming the post in January.

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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday (March 15th) to congratulate him on the results of Russia's recent presidential elections. The two officials expressed their satisfaction with the level of bilateral relations.

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Montenegrin Parliament Speaker Ranko Krivokapic paid an official visit to Great Britain on Thursday (March 13th). He held talks with British Minister for Europe Jim Murphy and the Labour Party's chief whip Geoff Hoon.

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Albanian Parliament Speaker Jozefina Topalli received guarantees from the Latvian government on Wednesday (March 12th) that it will support Albania's bids to integrate in Euro-Atlantic structures. On a two-day official visit to Riga, Topalli met with President Valdis Zatlers.

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During talks Tuesday (March 11th) in Baku, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Bulgarian counterpart, Georgi Parvanov, discussed ways to deepen political, economic and cultural co-operation. Aliyev said that Azerbaijan is establishing itself as an important supplier of energy resources to the European market and is already delivering energy along four export pipelines. Parvanov, meanwhile, urged Azerbaijan to become part of the Nabucco pipeline project.

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Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic said on Tuesday (March 11th) that he supports the NATO bids of Croatia and Macedonia. "It would be right for these countries to be invited to join the organisation at its forthcoming summit," Gasparovic said during a meeting with his Macedonian counterpart, Branko Crvenkovski, in Bratislava. He urged Macedonia and Greece to quickly reach a compromise in their name dispute.

Various sources – 11/03/08-18/03/08