Home
Partner Cities Program
Since 1993, Maryland and Estonia have been partners in the National Guard's State Partnership Program. The purpose of the State Partnership Program was "to strengthen military-to-military contacts between the United States military, and the military of Estonia, which had only achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The vision behind the partnership was to enable Estonia to be part of a community of free, stable, and prosperous nations acting together while respecting the dignity and rights of the individual and adhering to the principles of national sovereignty and international law."
The Bilateral Affairs Officer in the U.S. Office of Defense Cooperation is the Maryland National Guard's representative in Estonia, and works to coordinate Maryland's State Partnership Program with Estonia. Cooperation between Maryland and Estonia has included military to military, civil-military and civilian to civilian exchanges.
Office of Defense Cooperation sponsorship of the Partner Cities Program
There are opportunities for Estonian students to study at Maryland
colleges and universities through the Maryland-Baltic Educational
Consortium, which is the educational exchange component of the
Estonia-Maryland partnership.
One increasingly important civilian element of this relationship is the partner cities program. There are currently ten partner city relationships concluded between Maryland and Estonian cities.
A recent partner city initiative (developed by partner cities Westminster and Paide) brought donations of English-language children's books to libraries in each of Estonia's 15 counties during the fall of 2003. Read
more about how the book donation came about and celebrations that occurred across Estonia to mark the event.
The newest partner relationship was established in November 2003 between the resort towns of Ocean City and Pärnu.
General Information
Book Project
Westminster - Paide
|
