Estonia–Latvia relations
Encyclopedia
Estonia–Latvia relations are foreign relations between Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

 and Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

. Both states share a long common history: before 1918, they were both part of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

. They were both re-occupied by the USSR between 1945 and 1991. Both countries established diplomatic relations on January 3, 1992. Estonia has an embassy in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

. Latvia has an embassy in Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...

.

The two states share 343 km of common borders. They enjoy close relations sharing a common history of relations in the USSR and being neighbours.

Common membership

Both countries are full members of the Council of the Baltic Sea States
Council of the Baltic Sea States
The Council of the Baltic Sea States is an overall political forum for regional intergovernmental cooperation which addresses the five priority areas of the environment, economic development, energy, education and culture, civil security and human dimension, including trafficking in human...

, NATO and the European Union. The two countries were members of the Baltic Free Trade Area from 1994 until 2004 after which they joined the European Union.

Trade

In 2006, Latvia accounted for 3% of Estonian exports. Latvia accounted for 5% of Estonian imports.

Agreements

There are 15 bilateral agreements between the 2 countries many of them signed trilaterally with Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

.

Defence cooperation

The three Baltic countries signed a trilateral defence agreement on 12 February 1995.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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