Reinsalu quarantining after Slovenian minister tests positive for COVID-19
Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu will work remotely next week after meeting with Slovenian foreign minister Anže Logar this week in Tallinn, who later tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19).
Reinsalu (Isamaa) wrote on social media that he had been tested on Friday but did not yet know the result.
Reinsalu met with Logar on Tuesday ahead of the Slovenian Presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2021 and was told about the positive test on Friday.
Logar returned home from a three-day visit to the Baltic states on Thursday and the Slovenian Foreign Ministry said he had no symptoms. The foreign ministers of both Latvia and Lithuania will quarantine too, Reinsalu wrote.
Reinslau wrote: "My colleagues from Latvia and Lithuania will start isolation with me next week, and we will have, at least for foreign ministers, a Baltic quarantine instead of a Baltic bubble."
Poland's President Andrzej Duda also tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday, just days after he returned from The Three Seas Initiative forum in Tallinn.
While it was unclear when Duda was infected, he met with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid and Bulgarian President Rumen Radev while in Tallinn at the beginning of the week.
Kaljulaid said on her Facebook page she tested negative for the virus after returning home from France on Friday.
Radev had meanwhile cut short his visit to Tallinn on Tuesday go into quarantine in Sofia.
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During Logar's visit to Tallinn the ministers discussed bilateral relations, the Three Seas Initiative, regional security issues, transatlantic ties and cybersecurity.
"Foreign Minister Logar and I discussed the state of play of negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania," Reinsalu said. "It is in the interests of the European Union to make quick progress with adopting the negotiating frameworks for North Macedonia and Albania. A credible EU enlargement policy based on fundamental values and strict, yet fair criteria – including a clear European perspective for the Western Balkans – is the principal tool for unity in the region."
Reinsalu also highlighted the need to unify the awareness of European Union states about cyberattacks and their ability to respond to these attacks.
"I welcome Slovenia's interest in Estonia's knowledge in the area of cybersecurity. I invited Slovenia's experts to attend the annual conference of the European Union network of cyber experts and expressed hope that we would see a further development of cybersecurity measures during the Slovenian Presidency."
He also welcomed Slovenia's decision to join the Three Seas Investment Fund.
The topics covered by the ministers included the situation in Belarus and the European Union's relations with Russia. They also noted the overlapping positions of Estonia and Slovenia on not supporting mandatory immigration quotas.
Editor's note: This article was updated to add information about President Kersti Kaljulaid.
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Editor: Helen Wright
