WASHINGTON, February 19 (RIA Novosti) – The US State Department on Tuesday welcomed the signing of a border agreement between Russia and Estonia that has ended a long-running territorial dispute.
The foreign ministers of Russia and Estonia signed the agreement earlier in the day in Moscow, ratifying both land and maritime borders more than 20 years after the small Baltic nation gained independence from the Soviet Union.
“We view the agreement as a positive development and a sign of a productive relationship between the two countries. We look forward to the treaty’s ratification and implementation,” US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
The border treaty was originally agreed upon in 2005, but its implementation was subsequently frozen.
Estonia has pushed for recognition of the borders that it used during the country’s two decades of independence before the Soviet army moved into the country in 1940.
