Russia says work on border treaty with Estonia not over yet

Photo: Kristjan Teedema / Postimees

Russia continues to put the final touches to the drafts of the treaties on the land and sea border with Estonia and is not yet ready to forecast when and where the document might be signed.

«The Russian side continues working on the draft treaties between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Estonia regarding the Russian-Estonian state border and the delimitation of the Narva Bay and the Gulf of Finland,» Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Bikantov said in a commentary.

«Based on the results of this work, a decision will be made on the time and place for signing these documents,» he said.

An Estonian media outlet earlier asked Bikantov whether or not Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had accepted his Estonian counterpart Urmas Paet's invitation to come to Tallinn for the signing of the border treaties.

Estonia and Russia signed the land and sea border treaties in May 2005. As part of ratification of the treaties the Estonian parliament added a preamble into the ratification bill referring to the 1920 Tartu peace treaty. Russia immediately revoked its signature under the treaties arguing that Tallinn was thus attempting to set the stage for future territorial claims.

Estonia maintains the reference was to the legal continuity of the Republic of Estonia and has denied having any territorial claims on Russia.

The two countries launched consultations on a new border treaty at the end of 2012 and have held three rounds of talks since. Following the third round on May 8, 2013, the Estonian parliament's foreign affairs committee concluded that the work on the new documents had been completed. On May 23, the Estonian government approved the draft treaties and authorized Foreign Minister Urmas Paet to sign them.