Tallinn meeting of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and UK foreign ministers, March 2021: joint statement
The 3 foreign ministers and the Foreign Secretary agreed a statement following talks in Tallinn on increasing cooperation between the UK and the Baltic States.
Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets of Estonia today hosted Dominic Raab of the United Kingdom, Edgars Rinkēvičs of Latvia and Gabrielius Landsbergis of Lithuania in Tallinn for a meeting of UK and Baltic Foreign Ministers. Ministers had an in-depth discussion of foreign policy issues and how to increase cooperation between the Baltic States and the United Kingdom.
Ministers discussed Russia, China, Ukraine, and Belarus, as well as the wider issues of regional security and mutual defence. All agreed that the Baltic States and the United Kingdom would enhance coordination in multilateral fora, including on responding to events in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, as well as fostering a robust response in the OPCW and UN to the abhorrent poisoning of Alexey Navalny.
Ministers agreed to continue working on strengthening cooperation at NATO, democratic values, human rights, respect for international law, and to increase efforts to defend media freedom and combat disinformation. They reaffirmed the importance of combating climate change and increasing the ambition of emission reduction targets ahead of COP26, in Glasgow in November.
The Ministers agreed on the value of increased cooperation between the Baltic States and the United Kingdom, and to meeting regularly to continue discussing shared foreign policy priorities and further enhance cooperation.