Estonia Sees No Prospects For Ratification Of Border Treaty With Russia - Minister

Estonia Sees No Prospects for Ratification of Border Treaty With Russia - Minister

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said on Tuesday that he does not see how the country's parliament can ratify a border agreement with Russia due to disagreements on the Tartu Peace Treaty of 1920

TALLINN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2019) Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said on Tuesday that he does not see how the country's parliament can ratify a border agreement with Russia due to disagreements on the Tartu Peace Treaty of 1920.

"Estonia should not abandon the principles of the Tartu Peace Treaty to ratify the border treaty with Russia. Given the fact that Russia is associating the border treaty with the political conditions, there is no prospect of ratification of the border treaty by the Estonian parliament," Reinsalu told Estonian radio channel Vikerraadio.

In 2014, Russia and Estonia signed a set of border treaties, regulating the land borders, as well as maritime areas between the countries. The treaties replaced the previous agreements that had not been ratified by Russia, because of unilateral changes made in the text by Estonia.

The border treaty was previously signed in 2005. Tallinn unilaterally included a preamble containing references to the Tartu Peace Treaty of 1920 between Estonia and Soviet Russia in the relevant law during the ratification process. Moscow regarded this as an excuse to make territorial claims against Russia in the future.

According to the Tartu Peace Treaty between Estonia and Soviet Russia, parts of Russian territory, precisely Ivangorod with the surrounding area (now Ivangorod in the Leningrad Region) and parts of the Pechora Krai (now the Pechora District of the Pskov Region), were ceded to Estonia. In 1944, these territories were returned to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Moscow views the Tartu Treaty as a historical document that has no legal effect.