BONJOUR L’ESTONIE
HELLO ESTONIA, TERE EESTIMAA
January 1, 2007
TALLINN – Estonia will not go back on Estonian-Russian border demarcation treaties that have been renounced by Russia after the Estonian parliament included in the law ratifying them a reference to a 1920 accord that Moscow refuses to recognize, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said.
“There is nothing for the government to go back on. It was a decision by parliament, and now this issue is not on the agenda. The government will not propose any law to parliament because the treaties were ratified in precisely the form they were signed in,” Paet told Interfax.
Russia withdrew its signatures under the treaties, which would have formalized the land and sea borders between the two countries, after Estonia’s parliament included in the law ratifying the accords a preamble citing the 1920 Tartu peace treaty between Russia and Estonia.
Russia argues that the Tartu treaty is solely of historical significance and that the reference to it in the Estonian ratification law might be seen as an attempt to pave the way for territorial claims.
