Both visits started with now-Mayor Ron Swegles' visit to England in December 2004. There he met with leaders from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and--so far--two of them have come to Sunnyvale.

In a reception speech at the Ramada Inn off Highway 101, Rüütel referred to Sunnyvale as "a town that chose the same path that Estonia now hopes to follow," speaking of the many high-tech companies that call Sunnyvale home.

Rüütel was in California primarily to speak at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco on Jan. 19, and his trip included stops at Stanford University and UC-San Francisco.

Rüütel explained that after declaring independence from the Soviet Union on Aug. 20, 1991, Estonia endured a painful economic downturn but has spent the last

decade working out of that. Today, his country is working on developing an economy like that of the United States and other European countries.

"It's interesting to see just how far it is possible for us to go still," Rüütel said.

He said almost 70 percent of Estonians use the Internet in some form today, and half of the people own personal computers. Rüütel also said proudly that all schools in Estonia use computers to make sure their future workforce is tech-ready, like the people of the Bay Area.

"It's interesting to see his perspective, because living here for a long time, among the business and tech companies, you kind of take that for granted," Swegles said.

After the reception, Rüütel, Swegles and other Sunnyvale leaders toured Yahoo!, Advanced Micro Devices and NASA.

"I think it's exciting that the president of a foreign country came to Sunnyvale," said Chamber of Commerce CEO and President Suzi Blackman. "The fact that they see us as a role model is very cool."