Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has arrived in Georgia together with his wife, Evelin Ilves, for a three-day official visit. An official welcoming ceremony was held in the courtyard of the parliament building, after which Ilves held a face-to-face meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili at which the two presidents discussed issues of strategic cooperation between the countries. During the meeting Saakashvili bestowed Ilves with the Order of the Golden Fleece for his support and contribution to Georgia's democratic development. In response, his counterpart granted him a special state medal on behalf of the Republic of Estonia. After the face-to-face meeting, talks were held in a wider format between Georgian officials and the Estonian delegation. After the talks, Saakashvili and Ilves held a joint news conference at the parliament, where they briefed journalists on mutual cooperation between the countries. Afterwards, Ilves held a face to face meeting with Georgian Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze.

Later, Ilves and Saakashvili gave speeches to open a Georgian-Estonian business forum at the Tbilisi Marriott.

"Through implementing economic reforms we have managed to be ranked 32nd among world countries on the World Bank's list of top reformers. We hope to move further forward on this path. Railway, petroleum and natural gas projects are being implemented. The Black Sea area has great potential. I hope that Estonian businessmen will make investments in Tbilisi and Batumi. The only place where we cannot guarantee the security of investments is lower Abkhazia, because of the conflict situation there," Saakashvili said at the forum.

Toomas Hendrik Ilves also called on Estonian businessmen to invest in Georgia. He spoke of Russia's embargo on Georgian products and said that it had in fact helped Georgia to improve the quality its products, which are now able to compete with top brands on world markets.

press Office
of the President of Georgia