The Foreign Affairs Committee addresses protecting Estonia’s interests in a changing world order
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) has launched a year-long series of parliamentary hearings that will focus on changes in the international order, their impact on small countries, and how Estonia should navigate in a rapidly changing world.
According to Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Marko Mihkelson, the rules-based international order, which has been built on international law, multilateralism, the central role of institutions, and norms-based cooperation, has come under severe pressure. “The rapidly changing international situation brings Estonia and our region a number of existential threats that are coming closer to us rather than receding. Therefore, the Foreign Affairs Committee has decided to conduct a series of parliamentary hearings focused on the impacts of these changes and the protection of Estonia’s interests,” he said.
The first focus topic was the Nordic-Baltic cooperation. It was discussed at today’s sitting of the Foreign Affairs Committee with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence. “We started with the region that is the closest to us and the most important from the point of view of ensuring our security, or the Nordic-Baltic region, and our purpose is to shape a vision for the future of cooperation in security policy, defence policy, and international diplomacy. There is many times more potential in our cooperation than we have been able to use so far,” Mihkelson explained.
According to Mihkelson, the plan is to hold discussions on around ten thematic blocks, on the basis of which the Foreign Affairs Committee will draft its policy recommendations at the beginning of next year. In order to formulate its final conclusions, the Foreign Affairs Committee will also commission a study “Protecting the Interests of Small States in a Changing International Order: Estonia’s Choices after the Change of the Current World Order,” which will be conducted by the Department of Law of Tallinn University of Technology.
The aim of the study, which will be completed by autumn, is to provide an analytical framework for identifying which elements of the current world order continue to be of critical importance to Estonia, which existing assumptions or practices may no longer be sustainable in the new environment, and how Estonia can preserve the norms, institutions, and principles in a situation where their universal validity is no longer self-evident.
Riigikogu Press Service
Karin Kangro
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