Estonia's new embassy building in Riga to become home to business center - president

TALLINN - Estonian President Alar Karis, together with Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs, opened the new building of the Estonian embassy in Riga's Old Town on Wednesday.

"This is a place where Estonian and Latvian ideas, initiatives and partnerships come together. From May, Estonia's new embassy building will become home to a business center that will boost Estonian-Latvian economic cooperation," Karis said.

"It's not everyday for a small country to have an embassy building built from scratch according to its own original design. Estonia only has a few such embassy buildings. This speaks to how important Latvia is to us," the president added.

"The business center opening at the embassy in May also bears a sign of the changing nature of diplomacy. On the one hand, diplomacy is an old and mature art. On the other hand, it is constantly changing -- we see how business and digital diplomacy have become increasingly important," Karis said.

Latvia is Estonia's second largest trading partner and Estonia is Latvia's second largest investor. Approximately 4,000 Estonian companies operate in Latvia.

The president also emphasized the significance of the common cultural and linguistic space between Estonia and Latvia, especially in celebrating the Year of the Book.

"The beginning of our common recent history was recorded already in the Livonian Chronicle of Henry 800 years ago. Our common spiritual space began to take shape in a publication published 500 years ago, which contained texts in both Latvian and Estonian," Karis said.

"The days of celebration of the written word in the mother tongue of both peoples remind us of this. However, new chapters of this publication will continue to be written -- today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow," he added.

The opening of the new Estonian embassy building in Riga was attended by Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs, as well as former presidents Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, Valdis Zatlers, Andris Bērziņš and Raimonds Vējonis, and Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže.

Karis and Rinkēvičs discussed increasing cooperation, the Rail Baltic project, security and the importance of supporting Ukraine.

The Estonian head of state also emphasized that security is not guaranteed by declarations, but by real readiness and investments. He noted that Estonia will increase its defense spending to at least 5 percent of GDP starting next year.

"We are doing this to strengthen both our own defense capabilities and to contribute to the collective defense of our allies," Karis said.