Dear ladies and gentlemen,
When is the right time for agreeing to a peace? What does a peace have to comprise in order to last? How do we preserve a peace?
These questions are haunting the international community now just as they were in 1919-1920. I believe that the Tartu Peace Treaty can serve as a useful example here. Perhaps even as a fruitful source of inspiration.
There is a lot of symbolism and many mythological stories around the Tartu Peace Treaty. Like the fact that due to technical reasons, it was signed just after midnight. That is, the most peaceful time of the day.
Similarly, there have been discussions and even conferences about the significance of the Tartu Peace Treaty. How it was heralding a new era. With the Tartu Peace Treaty, Estonia’s independence received an international dimension. Soviet Russia acknowledged Estonian sovereignty and independence. Up until that point, it was just a dream.
Similarly, Ukraine has a dream of living freely within its sovereign territory. A goal that Russia wishes to destroy. However, the truth is that the aggressor lacks the tools to crush this dream. Because it is stronger than Russia’s warmongering, its rockets and drones.
The Entente’s support to Estonia helped to forge our victory in the War of Independence more than a hundred years ago. Similarly, international support is now helping Ukraine to win its Freedom War. We have done a lot in helping Ukraine to push back the aggressor. But we have to do more as current support volumes are simply not enough.
The war in Ukraine is existential not only for Ukraine, Estonia or the countries bordering Russia, but for the whole of Europe and its institutions. For the rules based world order, for European security, for democracy and for a way of life based on freedom, justice and equality. This is something that we have to keep in mind until the war is over.
This is the main lesson we have learned from our own history. We can truly be the ones who we really are only when we are free. We can fulfil our potential if we are free. Our societies are more coherent (and most probably happy) when freedoms are granted. Welfare and security are underpinned by freedoms. Therefore, we deeply believe that the world is better off if it is fit for freedom.
Standing up for freedoms is not just about my belief. It is about a whole range of concrete steps that the Estonian Foreign Ministry is actively taking. Broadly speaking, it means three main strands of work. First, we must strengthen the international rules-based order. Second, the protection of fundamental and human rights must be part of global security policy. More vigorously and more consciously than hitherto. In the simplest terms, this means protecting people from all forms of violence – physical and psychological persecution. Third, it means making the world fit for freedom through inclusive decision-making.
Ladies and gentlemen,
When is the right time for agreeing to a peace? The architect of the Tartu Peace Treaty, the first Estonian foreign minister Jaan Poska was very considerate and careful here.
As much as we want the war in Ukraine to end quickly with peace, we must be patient and not rush into every peace initiative. Not every peace dove carries a real message of peace. Let us be careful that our desire to live in peace is not misused. Just as Poska saw it in his days, so it is now – the foundations of a lasting peace are laid at the front.
As the peacemaker, he knew that a peace could only be true peace when it is preserved. He understood that peace is not thing-in-itself, a matter of course. One has to work for peace continuously. Peace has to be protected, safeguarded. ‘Let us taste peace, but let us maintain it and increase our military strength,’ he said a week after signing the peace treaty in Tartu.
President Zelensky has put forward his concrete outline and prerequisites for peace. We support the plan and the process that leads to its realization. We believe that in essence six fundamental elements form the foundation for the future security of Europe. First, the focus on territorial integrity and sovereignty – they have to be preserved, protected and strengthened. Second, ruling out aggression as an instrument of international relations. Third, rejecting the policy of spheres of influence – everyone has the right to choose to which unions and alliances they belong. Fourth, the disappearance of grey zones, as they are a breeding ground for wars and instability. Fifth, the endurance of a community of values based on the European Union and NATO. They are and will remain the spine of European security. Finally, any preconditions for relations with Russia must include the restoration of trust and ruling out an automatic reset. Russia will still be there after the war. We would like to see the normalization of relations with Russia. It would be in everybody’s interest. However, the normalization of relations can start only when trust is restored. Only Russia itself can prove with its steps that there can be trust.
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
So is the Tartu Peace Treaty still valid? Well, this has been one of our favourite questions, if not paradoxes, that we have inherited from history. Of course it is still valid! Let us take a look around us – we have gathered here because of the Tartu Peace Treaty in a free Estonia. The continuous existence of the Republic of Estonia – the fact that regaining independence in 1991 meant restoring the same independence that was established largely also thanks to the Tartu Peace Treaty – is the embodiment of the validity of the Tartu Peace Treaty. This freedom around us here in this beautiful hall – despite it being built during the Soviet occupation – is exactly the same one that was created when the peace treaty in Tartu was signed. We live and gather freely in the same country!
We know all too well the dangers that menace free and sovereign societies. We have seen it in the past and tragically, we have to witness it at this very moment. Russia continues to wage a war against Ukraine. A war that is genocidal, terrorist and colonial. A war that aims to destroy rules and justice, the world as we know it and hold dear. Therefore, a lot is at stake in Ukraine. The war is absolutely existential and affects everybody in this world, because it defines the future. Will there be rules or not? The actual treaty that is going to put an end to the atrocities and establish a lasting peace is going to be the foundation of the new world. Let’s make it ‘firm, honest and fair.’ That is how Poska himself envisaged true peace.
