Dear Eduard, dear journalists,
I am happy to welcome you in Tallinn, on the first ever bilateral visit of the Slovak Prime Minister to Estonia. Relations between Estonia and Slovakia are very good, and today we discussed how we can deepen them even further.
I see a lot of potential in many areas of cooperation, notably ICT, education and cybersecurity. I’m glad you’ll be visiting the e-Estonia Briefing Centre later.
I am particularly happy that Slovakia is interested in education cooperation. According to PISA 2018, the Estonian general education is first in Europe and among the best in the world. But as the power of knowledge reaches its full potential when shared, we are happy share our best practices and experiences. Education is also security policy. It is about future-proofing our democracies to make our societies more resilient and make our children creators, not just users, of innovation.
Estonia and Slovakia share the same understanding about the severity of the current security situation. You are Ukraine’s neighbour, we are the aggressor’s neighbour.
Not only is Russia waging a war on Ukraine – there is also a hybrid war, energy war and information war going on. We discussed today what we are doing to support our people regarding energy bills and high prices caused by Russia’s aggression. We need coordinated solutions on the European level. We saw markets react well when EU leaders made political headway in October, now it is important that a quick deal is reached on the European Commission’s proposals.
Russia’s interest is to divide us – not only allies and partners, but also our societies. In this moment, cooperation between close allies and good partners is more important than ever.
We must continue to stand united against Russia. Ukraine needs to win this war and with our help they will.
What we see at the moment in Ukraine is Russia trying to use all the means possible to push for a pause – so they could regroup and continue later to ultimately get something that wasn’t theirs to begin with.
Russia is not doing well militarily so they focus their efforts on terror tactics. With the deliberate and systematic campaign against ordinary Ukrainians and civilian infrastructure, they want to cause maximum harm before winter.
While dropping missiles and threatening with nukes, Russia is also talking peace. This is another tactic to push for a pause on the battlefield. I do not believe in the goodwill of an outright aggressor and cold-blooded war criminals. It is no time for negotiations, it is the time to keep raising the cost of war to Russia and scale up our support.
What Ukraine needs the most at the moment is military, economic and humanitarian assistance. Like Estonia, Slovakia is one of the top aid-givers to Ukraine per capita. Like Estonia, Slovakia understood the importance of military aid early on. I call on others to do the same – look into your stockpiles and reserves and send arms to Ukraine. This is the way to peace. I also welcome the European Commission’s new proposed 18-billion-euro support package for 2023, launched earlier this week – as with military aid, Ukraine needs strong financial support to win this war.
Let me finish by pointing out Estonia’s and Slovakia’s close cooperation in NATO. Slovakia’s presence in the Baltic region, in Latvia, is highly appreciated. We are both eastern flank countries and I am glad there is now a NATO battle group also in Slovakia.
We need to focus on our own defence as well. Like Slovakia, Estonia is increasing its defence spending. By next year Estonia’s defence spending will be nearly 3% of GDP. We are also both working hard on the road to the NATO Summit in Vilnius and to ensure the Madrid Summit decisions are implemented with speed.
Thank you.
