OPEN THE GATES TO COOPERATION BETWEEN OUR TWO COUNTRIES
Toast by the President of the Republic of Slovenia
Official visit to the Republic of Latvia

Riga (Latvia), 2 March 2000



Madam President, Mr. Freiberg, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am most grateful to you for having the honour and opportunity to witness directly, albeit briefly, life in your beautiful, friendly country. I have long read of your rich, fascinating history, to which as a Slovene I felt very close. In many places I can identify with it. The origins of Slovene and Latvian literary language stretch back to the same era. It was this era that despite all the subsequent turbulent circumstances for the two nations paved their cultural and civilisational paths into the future. Sometimes events favoured Latvia, sometimes Slovenia, but neither especially. They were much more often exposed to the angry fluctuations of Europe’s violent history than to the gentle winds of partnership and well-being in the interim periods of peace.

I was very pleased to receive your invitation. I am convinced that we will also be able to take advantage of our meeting to throw open the gates to cooperation between our two countries. This I feel to be my duty, and I shall be happy to do it. I have no doubt, Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, that you feel the same.

Cooperation between us is sincere, but is still modest. I shall therefore say it simply and briefly: we have at our disposal all the capacities – economic, cultural, human and political – to work together more and in a better way. There are numerous European problems and common national interests that invite us, even call on us, to have more frequent contacts.

Latvia and Slovenia are taking rapid steps to reorder their internal relations and institutions so that they are ready as early as possible for entry into the European Union. They began under different circumstances, but the path and the objective are the same. There is much experience and knowledge we can share regarding this. Moreover, our two countries are among the smaller ones within European dimensions, and we are thus both seeking the answer to a similar question: how should the European house be, that it might suit the measure of smaller countries and peoples and provide a safe common home for them also? This is one of the key questions for the future of Europe and its common institutions, and therefore joint reflection by smaller countries should help the shapers of Europe’s future, among whom, I hope and believe, our two nations shall soon be numbered.

Latvia and Slovenia were both fated to live in turbulent regions. The great powers often made decisions about the Baltic and Central European nations, as they did about the fate of security in South Eastern Europe, on which Slovenia borders, employing the logic of the victor, and used them to settle accounts with one another. This also produced so much aggressive nationalism and political models of government that were out of step with the fundamental values on which the new Europe of cooperation is being founded. With the will and decisiveness of their peoples and all their citizens, our two countries have succeeded in leaving behind the maelstroms of war and politics, and have placed at the centre of their reforms people, their freedom, dignity and rights without discrimination and irrespective of ethnic identity, democracy and free market competition. But Chechnya, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and ill-fated Serbia serve as warning to us all that there is still far to go to a Europe as we wish it to be on the threshold of the third millennium: to a Europe that is democratic and free, and capable of successfully competing with other parts of this economically globalised world; to a Europe in which everyone living on our continent and in all its countries can be citizens of Europe, without discrimination and bound ultimately by the same common values. These and other flashpoints are our concern, and are the concern and responsibility of the entire continent, for no longer is anyone responsible for to themselves alone. As long as one person is deprived of freedom and well-being, we are all deprived. As long as one single country elevates its sovereignty above universal human rights, we are all limited in democracy. This is a further important reason to get to know one another better, to open out towards one another, to cooperate and to help those who are not yet able to embark on our common journey into the future.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I am honoured to be among you. May I take this opportunity to raise my glass to the prosperity of Latvia and of its citizens, to cooperation between Latvia and Slovenia, to a successful Europe, to peace, and to you, Madam President, Mr. Freiberg, ladies and gentlemen.