Baltic News Service
February 9, 2007 Friday 3:07 PM EET

ESTONIAN FOR MIN REJECTS EU COMMISSIONER’S IDEAS CONCERNING GEORGIA

Estonia’s Reformist Foreign Minister Urmas Paet does no see eye to
eye with Siim Kallas, vice-president of the European Commission and
former chairman of the Reform Party, concerning expediency of the
Estonian embassy in Georgia.

Kallas wrote in Diplomaatia (Diplomacy), a publication of the
international defense studies center, that Estonia should above all
stake on work in international organizations, not so much on
embassies in other countries. Kallas said that the Estonian decision
to open an embassy in Georgia had made him think about the issue.

Paet told BNS that the embassy in Georgia was very important as
Georgia was a development cooperation country of the highest priority
for Estonia and Estonia actively supported the country’s pro-western
reforms.

"Estonia would not be taken seriously if we didn’t have an embassy in
the country. We will be believed if we have a presence in Georgia,"
Paet said.

The foreign minister said that via the embassy Estonia urgently
leared of developments in the country and dispatch of a couple of
experts was not enough.

Paet said that Estonia had recently stepped up its activity and
number of diplomats also in international organizations, such as the
United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe, the European Union and NATO.

Paet said that Estonia had opened most of its embassies in the late
1990s and they hadn’t operated for ten years yet. The foreign
minister said that the bilateral network of Estonian embassies was
now optimal in the European countries, but there were plans to open
an embassy in the Balkan region.

Siim Kallas wrote in Diplomaatia that in case of limited resources it
was necessary to prefer manning representatations at international
organizations with first-rate forces to supplying and financing of
bilateral embassies.

Kallas said that he had great sympathy for Georgia and was always
ready to support its pro-western and pro-reform initiatives.

"But where is the battle for the brave Georgian being waged?" he
asked. "It is being waged in the European Union, the European
Parliment the Council of Europe, the United Nations as well as in
NATO and the OSCE.

Kallas said that perhaps it would be more sensible to draw up a team
of those people that had been named to head the said organizations,
establish direct links between those people and Georgian politicians.

The vice-president asked what would happen in the reforms in Georgia
came to a standstill and Armenia instead would rise into the focus on
international politics. "After all, we have always had a warm
attitude also to Armenia," he said.

In Kallas’s opinion Estonia naturally needs embassies in key
countries, but that there are no more than 10 or 15 of them.