A few personal perspectives on 🇪🇪 foreign and security policy. I have devoted my entire adult life to protecting and advancing Estonia as a diplomat and civil servant. I have had the honour of working alongside dedicated people and leading teams with whom we have shaped Estonia’s foreign and defence policy and implemented many of the decisions that have brought us to where we are today. Developing and implementing a comprehensive approach to national defence, bringing Allied military forces to Estonia, strengthening NATO’s collective defence and standing up to Russian aggression – these have been the right choices. They have made Estonia stronger. I have done my work with complete dedication and passion, and I am proud of what we have achieved together. Today, however, I have come to believe that protecting Estonia and moving our country forward requires more than I can accomplish as a civil servant. Estonia needs greater ambition. Not a change of course. Not turning the ship around or running it aground. Quite the opposite. To stay the course of freedom we have chosen, both Estonia and Europe must act with greater confidence and determination. We must ensure that aggression fails. And we must shape the peace that follows so that it safeguards our freedom as well. This is where political leadership at the level of the European Council becomes decisive. For this is where the decisions that matter most for Europe’s future are now made. Not necessarily, or even primarily, around formal negotiating tables. But they are made at the level of leaders. In shaping Europe’s future, Estonia must not simply drift along with the current, let alone become an obstacle or a disruptive force. Quite the opposite. Estonia must lead. We must be a country whose voice carries weight, whose views are heard and whose initiatives inspire others to follow. Keeping Estonia at the heart of Europe, and ensuring that Europe itself endures, is our responsibility. And it is also the most important guarantee of 🇪🇪 freedom.