The first foreign visit by the newly inaugurated Polish President Andrzej Duda was to the Estonian capital of Tallinn on 23 August.

The visit was timed to coincide with the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Totalitarian Regimes and the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed on 23 August 1939.

the president met Estonian leaders: President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas and speaker of Parliament Eiki Nestor. He also laid a wreath at the Monument of Independence in the Estonian capital.

Duda and counterparts discussed bilateral relations and the security situation in the region, the minister in the president’s office responsible for foreign affairs Krzysztof Szczerski told the Polish press agency PAP.

Both Poland and Estonia have been at the forefront of recent calls for NATO to locate permanent bases on the alliance's eastern borders in the context of fears about Russia's foreign policy intentions in the region.

In the afternoon Duda delivered a speech about the importance of the right to peace and The Polish president said he would pursue an active policy in Central and Eastern Europe. "I am a supporter of closer cooperation between states in the region - from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic and the Black Sea. They have a shared experience of the second half of the twentieth century and often common problems now. I am thinking not only about security issues, but also about the economic situation," Duda said.

“I wish that this chain that was called the chain of freedom and that you once formed, one day would be a chain spanning from the Baltic Sea, from Tallinn, across Central Europe, to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea,” Duda said, referring to “Baltic Chain,” a peaceful political demonstration that took place on August 23, 1989 and was followed by the shaking off of the Soviet yoke by the three Baltic states.

This Friday Duda visits Berlin. He told reports that he plans to discuss changing the format of talks concerning Ukraine, with the US and Ukraine’s neighbours involved. “The president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko during a telephone conversation told me that he expects support from Poland," Duda said, adding that the EU rather than Germany and France should be at the talks. (jh/rk)