From left, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė and Latvian President Valdis Zatlers pan-Baltic energy cooperation measures Wednesday. Photo by Nathan Greenhalgh.

VILNIUS — Wednesday’s meeting of the Baltic state presidents did not yield any groundbreaking announcements.

Instead the public statements made the heads of state echoed those of the Baltic prime ministers when they met in Vilnius in November — that Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will continue to strive for energy independence from their old imperial master, Russia.

Neither of the presidents offered much specifics other than what has already been announced — affirming pan-Baltic financial support for the Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant, the eventual replacement for Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant set to be decommissioned at the end of the year while waiting for the responses to the Lithuanian government’s legal tender to build the plant.

“We have to wait for all the offers,” Latvian President Valdis Zatlers said a press conference with the other presidents Wednesday.

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves pointed out that specifics on the cost of the project cannot be determined until the proposals are examined.

“People have to make the proposals before we start thinking about it,” Ilves said at the conference.

Last month Lithuanian energy minister Arvydas Sekmokas told Reuters that energy companies like Germany’s E.ON and RWE, France’s EDF, Spain’s Iberdrola, Finland’s Fortum, and Sweden’s Vattenfall were expected to take part in the tender. Although Sekmokas declined to name any companies participating in the tender, he said that the competition for selecting a strategic investor will be announced in December.

The presidents announced that the three countries will compile a list of other energy projects to cooperate on.

“We have decided to charge our governments with a task of producing a list of projects for which we would jointly seek financing under the new financial perspective commencing in 2014,” President Dalia Grybauskaitė said.

The presidents also expressed optimism that their countries, three of the hardest-hit in the world by the economic crisis, are pulling out of the downturn.

“Latvia’s economy is recovering,” Zatlers said. “The plan is working, we have fulfilled the expectations of this year.”