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Estonian foreign minister: We must put even more pressure on Russia to stop war in Ukraine
Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets said on Monday that at EU level, but also at the international community's one, more pressure should be put on Russia to stop the war in Ukraine.
She emphasized, in a joint statement at the end of consultations with Romanian counterpart Bogdan Aurescu, that Estonia and Romania must continue to coordinate their positions as NATO's Eastern Flank states.
Romania and Estonia have a lot in common, including a common European identity. We have similar views when it comes to neighborhood policy and transatlantic ties, but I think we can create an even closer connection between our two countries. After 100 years of diplomatic relations and 30 years since the restoration of diplomatic relations, we should find new ideas, refresh bilateral relations. I believe that tomorrow's business conference will give us new ideas. We have the same geographical position and the same approach when it comes to security issues. It is important that NATO takes a step forward and establishes a bolder defense policy. (...) Being on the Eastern Flank, it is important to coordinate our positions, as we do today, and to coordinate them in the B9 format, as happened last week, Eva-Maria Liimets said in a joint statement with Bogdan Aurescu.
The head of Estonian diplomacy stressed the need to adjust the position of deterrence and defence in the context of concerns over the situation in Ukraine.
We are in a very difficult time and that is why we must continue to adjust our position of deterrence and defence, and we must continue to see how we can best help Ukraine and put pressure on Russia to stop this unfortunate war because we see innocent people dying in an unjust war that has been started by Russia and that has been going on for over a month. Thousands of civilians have died and we have had the crimes in Bucha (...) and, of course, Russia must to be held accountable for these actions and, most importantly, for the international community to take a stand and call on the International Criminal Court to launch an investigation without delay, because the Russian forces must be held accountable for these actions and, of course, the was criminals must be brought to court, said Eva-Maria Liimets.
According to her, the talks also included the topic of what the international community should do in addition to putting pressure on Russia to stop this war and help Ukraine restore its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
We must continue to put even more pressure on Russia to stop this war. And from our point of view, we must accelerate the next package of sanctions at EU level and implement sanctions as strong as possible to stop the cashflow from Russia to no longer be able to fuel the war machine. We should also sanction the energy sector, there should be no limits to sanctions, because this brutal and unjustified war must end. We also proposed that Russia be held accountable for the destruction of Ukraine's civilian infrastructure. This means that Russia must take part in rebuilding Ukraine, and we must start immediately. We should use Russia's frozen assets for this reconstruction, and we should use part of the payments for Russia, for gas, to rebuild Ukraine. We suggested opening a separate account that would act as a fund and collect money for gas and thus recover the costs of rebuilding Ukraine. From our point of view, it is very important to use every legal opportunity to put pressure on Russia to stop the war and then to hold them accountable for this war, Liimets said.
She recalled that Estonia and Romania were at the forefront of supporting Ukraine, noting that the Estonian side had provided 230 million euros in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Of course we continue to see what we can do more together and I would like to congratulate Romania for receiving so many refugees and for taking the initiative to support Moldova in accepting refugees, Eva Maria Liimets said.