Credentials Statement of Ambassador Wells

Mr. President: I have the honor to present to you credentials appointing me as United States Ambassador to the Republic of Estonia, as well as letters recalling my predecessor.

[in Estonian] Mu teekond on olnud pikk ja keeruline, aga lõpuks olen ma jõudnud Tondilt Kadriorgu. [end Estonian]

Mr. President, I assure you that the United States looks with admiration and friendship on your country, on how you with patience, courage, and dignity maintained your national identity through half a century of foreign occupations. I am proud to represent a country that never recognized the occupation, I am proud to have known Ernst Jaakson who in the United States maintained the Estonian official presence through a difficult era and whose funeral I attended a few weeks before arriving here.

We are aware of Estonia's striving to join or rejoin European structures from which she was separated for many years. We applaud your energetic move toward the European union which, as you have pointed out, may be considered a direct descendant of the Hanseatic league of which Estonian towns were full members. Your aspiration to join NATO is appreciated, and my government will continue to support and cooperate with Estonian Forces as we jointly take part in Partnership for Peace exercises and peacekeeping operations in turbulent areas. Contacts between our defense forces are strong and growing ever stronger.

Mr. President, we in the United States are aware of the mature way Estonia has taken up the process of integrating all its ethnic groups into a democratic society; I pay tribute to your initiative of establishing a commission of distinguished scholars to examine fully the horrors committed against all the peoples of Estonia over the last half century. We will continue to offer what assistance we can to facilitate the commission's actions.

My government has launched an initiative to facilitate mutual cooperation in the Nordic-Baltic region, including the western areas of Russia. It is an initiative to establish a network of projects that will benefit all participants, strengthening normal, cooperative, good neighborly relations between the nations in the area.

Mr. President, my special effort will be directed toward expanding the network of contacts between my country and yours. This includes not only intergovernmental ties but contacts between American states, cities and individuals. I will work hard to increase awareness of Estonia in the American business community and hope to see an increasing presence of American investments here. Such investments are mutually beneficial in their own right, but, more so, will help to create a set of “soft security” measures. And you, Mr. President, have never made a secret of Estonia's concern with security.

Have come back to my origins, Mr. President.

[in Estonian] On aeg minna tööle, sest tunnid on alati alanud. [end Estonian text]