Formin opens new Estonian embassy building in Beijing

Foreign Minister Keit Pentus-Rosimannus on Thursday inaugurated the new building of the Estonian embassy in the Chinese capital Beijing.

The building of the embassy in Beijing is the third structure specially built to house a diplomatic mission of Estonia, spokespeople for the Foreign Ministry in Tallinn said.

The minister said the decision of the government in 2006 to have a new building put up for the country's embassy in Beijing shows that Estonia considers maintaining long-term relations with China as important. The new building will definitely help make Estonia more visible in China, she added.

Pentus-Rosimannus said that since China is the most important partner in Asia for Estonia and the entire EU alike, maintaining good relations with it is important for Estonia.

«The renewed embassy helps to intensify economic relations between the two countries and thereby enables us to support Estonian entrepreneurs in entering the Chinese market, but also to better serve the interests of the tourism sector and Estonian citizens,» the minister said.

Pentus-Rosimannus is scheduled to meet in the course of the visit with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Deputy Foreign Minister Wang Chao and head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee Fu Yingi to discuss further developing of good relations between the countries, security related and other developments in Europe, Asia and the Pacific region, as well as in international crisis areas.

The Estonian ambassador to China is Toomas Lukk. In addition to the embassy in Beijing Estonia has a consulate general in Shanghai and honorary consuls in Macau and Hong Kong.

The first building ever erected specially for a diplomatic mission of Estonia was the building of the embassy in Helsinki built before WWII and the second the building of the country's embassy in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius inaugurated in 1998.