Estonian ambassador to Latvia presents credentials
10.10.2006
Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to the Republic of Latvia, Jaak Jõerüüt, presented his credentials to President Vaira Vike-Freiberga on Tuesday, 10 October.
After the ceremony, Jõerüüt and Vike-Freiberga discussed the history and current state of Estonian-Latvian relations. The Estonian ambassador made note of the little-known fact that the first person to give his life for the Republic of Estonia after the country proclaimed its independence in February 1918 was a Latvian, Johan Muischneek.
With the present-day in mind, the parties reaffirmed the very good relations between neighbors. They vowed to attend to two goals: continued existence of the Estonian school in Riga, and the publishing of an Estonian-Latvian dictionary. President Freiberga thanked and acknowledged Estonia’s previous ambassador to Latvia, Toomas Lukk, for both his active work in furthering bilateral relations and performing the duties of doyen of the Riga diplomatic corps.
The parties also exchanged thoughts about international current events. They found that the candidacy of Vaira Vike-Freiberga for UN Secretary General resulted in increased interest toward the Baltic States and positive coverage for the Baltic region. In addition, the nomination of the Latvian President as a candidate led to improvements and more transparency in the procedure for electing the Secretary General.
Jaak Jõerüüt was born on 9 December 1947. He graduated with an economics degree from the then Tallinn Polytechnical Institute in 1973. He began his diplomatic career in 1993 as ambassador to Finland. From 1997-1998, Jaak Jõerüüt was director general of the Foreign Ministry’s protocol department. Thereafter he served as ambassador to Italy, with co-accreditation to Malta and Cyprus. From 2002-2004 he was inspector general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; from 2004 Ambassador to the United Nations.
Jaak Jõerüüt was Minister of Defence from 2004-2005. From that point until his appointment as ambassador to Latvia, Jõerüüt served as adviser at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Jaak Jõerüüt is married. Jõerüüt speaks Finnish, English, Russian and Italian. He is a member of the Estonian Writers Union and the PEN club, the author of 14 works of verse and prose and the contributor of numerous articles and essays.
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