FM Paet Speaks to Parliament about most Important Foreign and Security Policy Topics

23.02.2008

The foreign minister talked about the most important themes in current foreign and security policy, such as Kosovo's independence, and the situations in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle East, and Africa.

"Estonia has recognised Kosovo's independence," the foreign minister stated. "Also, we are supporting the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) civilian mission in Kosovo, to which we are contributing with our experts," he added. Paet noted that Serbia should also participate in the region's long-term development solutions. "There is no doubt that Serbia needs Europe's, and thus also Estonia's, attention," the foreign minister said.

The foreign minister confirmed that Estonia will continue to works with its partners to improve the security situation in Afghanistan, as a part of NATO's most important operation there. "Our development aid has increased manyfold, with most of our donations going to the medical sector. This year, we will also deploy a police expert to Kabul and a health care expert to Helmand," said Paet.

The foreign minister also touched on NATO enlargement, relations with Russia, energy issues, the European Union's Baltic Sea Region Strategy, relations with Neighbourhood Policy partner countries, development co-operation, and Estonia's negotiations with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

"To ensure world-wide and regional security, it is necessary to bring new democracies and the Western Balkan states closer to NATO," said the foreign minister. "Assuming that the candidate countries of Croatia, Macedonia, and Albania continue to implement the necessary reforms and preparations for accession at their present pace, Estonia supports the issuing of invitations to accede to all three of these states at the Bucharest summit," said Paet. "We also support the further Euro-Atlantic integration of Georgia and Ukraine, and feel that both partners could be given a Membership Action Plan (MAP) in the course of 2008."

The foreign minister believes it is vital for active dialogue to continue between the European Union and Russia. "For Estonia, however, I believe it is essential to continue a pragmatic dialogue with Russia. We are moving ahead one small step at a time, keeping open various channels of communication and developing agreements that will bring practical benefits to the residents of both countries," said Paet.

Foreign Minister Paet spoke extensively about energy security issues. "It is infinitely essential to diversify energy sources and supply channels," Paet emphasised. "This calls for the connecting of the Estonian and Finnish, Lithuanian and Swedish, as well as Polish and Lithuanian electricity and gas supply systems," he said. He also feels it is important for the European Union to have a clear and concrete foreign policy concerning energy. "The present situation, in which every member state formulates its own appropriate policy, is not a suitable long-term solution, nor does it promote the development of a unified energy market," the foreign minister declared.

In talking about cyber security, the minister said that the development of international laws in this field still stands ahead of us. "European Union's cyber co-operation must be coherent and wide-ranging. It must include all areas that could be affected by cybercrime, including competitiveness." Paet emphasised.

In talking about Estonia's accession negotiations with the OECD, Paet emphasised that membership in the organisation will enable us to better analyse our economic prospects and have consultative help for finding solutions. "Decisions made by the OECD often influence even those states that do not actually belong to the organisation – for instance, the OECD determines the principles of development co-operation that are followed by all donor countries, including the European Union," the foreign minister noted. "Also, right now the legal concepts relevant to cyber-security are being formulated in the OECD, which is of great interest to Estonia. But, what is most important of all is that the OECD is the most valuable official and unofficial meeting place for the leading experts in the field," Paet emphasised. "It is of course difficult right now to predict how long our negotiations will last, but we hope that it will not be more than two years," he added.

The full text of the speech

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