Riga - Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini continued a whistle-stop tour of the Baltic states Tuesday with an itinerary that saw him meeting two foreign ministers and two presidents within a few hours. Frattini arrived in Latvia fresh from talks on Monday with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, which touched on a long-running dispute over ownership of "Villa Lituania," the former building of the Lithuanian embassy in Rome during the period between the two world wars.
At meetings with his Latvian counterpart, Maris Riekstins, and President Valdis Zatlers, Frattini repeated a proposal for the establishment of a permanent Italian-Baltic business forum.
Matters pertaining to the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization were also on the agenda, according to officials of the foreign ministry and president's office, as well as the need for strong bilateral relations in the run-up to 2015, when both Latvia and Italy will hold the presidency of the European Union.
The Latvian and Italian Foreign Ministers compared notes on the Baltic Sea States Council and the Adriatic and Ionian Initiative, both of which are forums for the idea of a shared seaboard.
Later Tuesday Frattini headed north to Estonia for further meetings with that country's foreign minister, Urmas Paet, and president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves.
