German chancellor Angel Merkel has revealed she is to send her senior aide for cultural issues on a fact finding mission to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in the coming weeks.

Ms Merkel's senior aide, Bernd Neumann, is beginning a culture tour this week, which will strengthen the links with the Baltic nations.

EarthTimes says the state minister for arts will take in an exhibition of works in Vilnius by German artist Gerhard Richter, while he will also be in Riga to open an event alongside Latvian culture minister Helena Demakova.

Germany, meanwhile, is hosting Essentia Baltica, a festival designed to mark the 90th anniversary of the Baltic states' independence

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have sought an increasingly central role on the European stage in the last decade, with the accession of all three in 2004 proving an important process for the countries and the European Union as a whole.