It is my great pleasure to be here in Paris again. I look forward to our meeting. There are many issues to be discussed.
I am glad we have excellent cooperation with France in many fields. I would highlight our security and defence cooperation. Thank you for your presence in Estonia and for France’s significant contribution to the collective defence of our region.
France is also a priority country for Estonia in terms of trade and investments. In fact, I am in Paris with a business delegation of Estonia’s top players in clean tech. Estonia and France signed earlier today a Statement of Intent on Cooperation in Clean Tech.
We both understand the need to decarbonise the economy and strengthen energy independence in Europe. I hope it will provide more cooperation possibilities between Estonian and French companies. French investments into our clean tech sector are very welcome.
Yesterday we had an emergency EU Council meeting, and we will also discuss with President Macron the unfolding escalation in the Middle East. Hamas engages in ruthless terrorism and shows no regard for human life, including for the lives of their fellow Palestinians. Israel, like any nation, has a legitimate right to self-defence under international law. It needs to make sure that in its defence, civilian lives are spared, and norms of international law followed.
Radicalisation in any form is a threat to us all. It is in the interests of Israel, the Palestinians, the Middle East and the world to put an end to this violence and tension. Fuelling crises in the Middle East benefits forces that have an interest in keeping our attention divided and fragmented. It is also helpful to those who want to distract the free world from supporting Ukraine. This means, we must maintain our resolve even stronger and continue our broad support to Ukraine until victory. Dear Emmanuel, I appreciate your leadership, firm stance, and readiness to provide long-term support to Ukraine and for understanding the threat Russia poses for the whole free world.
Russia is carrying out a war of attrition. There is no speedy victory, so we should have a plan for a long struggle. Our strategic response must be to signal to Russia that we are not tired, that we will stand next to Ukraine until victory, and we are ready to do it as long as it takes.
We must keep raising the price of aggression and limit Russia’s income to finance its war machine. We must continue with sanctions and the 12th EU sanctions package needs to focus on new stronger sanctions, effective implementation and also ending circumvention. Estonia advocates for having a trade embargo on Russia.
We must also focus on accountability. This is the only way to stop Russia’s imperialistic goals and end the cycle of aggression.
For peace in Europe, we need Ukraine in the EU and NATO. We have seen throughout history how grey zones are a breeding ground for wars while NATO and EU enlargement have increased stability – Estonia a living example of it. Ukraine has shown great progress on continued reforms in difficult circumstances. EU should open negotiations with Ukraine this year if conditions are fulfilled. The same goes for Moldova. In parallel, it is necessary to start our inner preparations. This shows we are serious about enlargement.
And we cannot forget our own defence. Europe’s defence needs a truly decisive lift. We need to step up our combat effectiveness and we need deterrence credible enough to avoid war and stop Russia’s cycle of aggressions. For that we need increased defence budgets. We must close existing gaps in our capabilities and stockpiles. Estonia’s defence budget will exceed 3% of the GDP next year.
I know from experience how difficult it is for democratically elected leaders to argue for increasing costs. But without security there really is nothing else.
Thank you.
Video of the statements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDdQFpgs3gI&t=1s
