During the meetings, Tsahkna recalled that this year Estonia and Bulgaria celebrate the 20th anniversary of joining NATO. “NATO is facing the greatest security challenge in its history: a brutal war of aggression in Europe. In this context we feel the protection of the NATO umbrella particularly clearly,” Tsahkna said. “It is clear that like-minded countries like Estonia and Bulgaria must contribute to the construction of a new European security architecture, part of which is the expansion of the European Union and NATO’s open door policy “.
Tsahkna praised Bulgaria for supporting Ukraine and presented the Estonian government’s agreement on long-term support of Ukraine, which allocates 0.25% of GDP for military support to Ukraine over the next four years . “Estonia’s calculations show that if all like-minded countries supported Ukraine militarily to the same extent, Ukraine’s victory would be palpable.”
They also talked about increasing the price of aggression for Russia by strengthening existing sanctions and imposing new ones.
“Any economic activity with Russia and evasion of sanctions allows Moscow to obtain resources to keep its war machine running and continue its brutal aggression,” the Foreign Minister said.
During the meetings, Tsahkna emphasized the need to use Russia’s frozen assets and presented the Estonian government’s draft law, currently under consideration by the Riigikogu. “Russia’s brutal aggression has caused unimaginable suffering and destruction in Ukraine,” Tsahkna said. “Moscow must pay for the damages caused by the aggression, and now the best way to do so is to use and direct frozen Russian resources to help Ukraine.”
During the meetings, opportunities to strengthen bilateral relations and economic cooperation between Estonia and Bulgaria were also discussed. Tsahkna expressed support for Bulgaria’s efforts to join the Eurozone and the OECD, as well as full membership of the Schengen area.
Pictures of the visit to Bulgaria.
2024-01-19 19:44:38
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