The invitation to visit Russia to sign the agreement was handed to Paet by the Russian embassy in Tallinn on Wednesday. The minister accepted the invitation at once.
According to the Estonian Foreign Minister, the signing of this agreement "will promote Russian-Estonian relations" as well as bilateral strategic partnership.
The bilateral agreement on the land and sea border was initialed for the first time in November 1996. After the introduction of slight amendments, it was initialed again in March 1999. The following steps were supposed to be the signing of this agreement and its ratification by the Russian and Estonian parliaments. In January 2005, the Estonian government approved the agreement and expressed its readiness to sign it.
However, the date and site of the signing aroused disputes. According to the Estonian side, the agreement should be signed in Tartu on February 2 because the agreement on the establishment of relations between Estonia and Soviet Russia was signed there on February 2, 1920. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proposed signing the document on May 9, 2005 during Estonian President Arnold Ruutel's possible visit to Moscow. The former refused to attend the celebrations of VE Day.
