Estonia wishes to join the United States in consultations regarding democracy projects in Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Mali, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told Tomicah Tillemann, Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Civil Society and Emerging Democracies at the U.S. Department of State, on June 3.
The recent events in the Middle East and Ukraine demonstrated that the success of democracy was not something to be taken for granted and the support to new democracies was significant, the Estonian Foreign Ministry press service said.
In the opinion of Paet, consultative projects like LEND (Leaders Engaged in New Democracies) proclaimed by Paet and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Mongolia in July 2012 aimed to support the chiefs of transitional governments with quality expert backing from the states experienced in reforms.
The United States initiated the project and offered Estonia to be a co-chair.
An operating system has been created and the project has proven its necessity, the Estonian foreign minister said.
LEND project makes it possible to share the best practices with new democracies, he said.
Project expansion options were discussed with the U.S. official.
For instance, the project may apply to Eastern Partnership and Central Asian states, in the first turn, Paet said, adding they were ready to support Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Mali.
