‘India should use its growing power to push Russia to end aggression in Ukraine'—Estonian PM
Estonia has been one of the biggest supporters of Ukraine since the war with Russia began in February 2022. The Baltic-nation, which is a member of both the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), has since increased its own defence spending, planning to cross five percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) by 2026.
'Like-minded countries should be working together. For example, India has growing power in the whole world, economically, but politically also. So we would very much appreciate that India would be pushing Russia towards ending aggression in Ukraine,' Michal said.
Tallinn: India should use its 'growing power in the world' to push Russia to end its aggression in Ukraine, Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal told ThePrint in an exclusive interaction Friday.
The nation of roughly 1.3 million people has been looking to strengthen its ties with New Delhi, focusing on strategic areas, such as cyber security and defence. Since 2007, Estonia, which was once a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) has been facing a number of cyber attacks from Russia, which has made the focus on cyber security a key national policy.
The Estonian prime minister said: 'On the economical field, as you already mentioned, on AI and cybersecurity, we are already talking to each other. On cybersecurity, Estonia has a long tradition and very strong experiences coming from Russia's cyberattacks against us since 2007. So we have been under constant attacks from Russia's side, and our IT sector was evolving and still is evolving quite rapidly.'
Michal added: 'I would say that we [India and Estonia] have many points of cooperation in business side, food and so on, but on the defence, cybersecurity is probably our strongest point that we can work on together because everybody from India can look that Estonia has a very strong IT sector, which is quite unusual because in many countries in Europe, I would say the State is operating on its own, and private sectors are operating also on their own.'
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Digitalisation & cyber security
For the Estonian government, digitalisation has been a key national priority, with the government first introducing its identity card programme in 2002—similar in nature to India's Aadhaar, introduced a few years later.
With the country moving towards complete digitalisation of its governance structures, roughly 99 percent of all government services are available through digital portals, which has made cyber security all that more important for the Baltic nation.
'Estonia has this kind of model where we are working together with private companies, and it's working absolutely well. That's why we are so strong… because we have, for example, this kind of cyber defence league in which the private sector is cooperating with the state, and helping fight different cyber attacks, but they also are gaining this kind of knowledge about what is happening in this field. So this is a very vibrant community in Estonia,' Michal pointed out.
In March, Jonatan Vseviov, the Estonian Secretary General in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had met with India's Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh in New Delhi, where the two had discussed cyber security, co-production in defence, military training and other niche technologies.
In the 1990s, the country, which had then just gained independence, focussed on strengthening its education in the IT sector, introducing the Tiger Leap programme in its schools to expand its digital network and infrastructure with a special focus on schooling.
Earlier this year, the Estonian President Alar Karis announced its AI Leap programme, with a focus on niche technology, with a view towards the future of global computing.
'We have a quite ambitious and big plan with AI because starting this year, we will have AI in our school curricula. So that will mean that in two years, one-third of our students and teachers will be learning how to use AI in a smart way. So that will affect our labour market in the future, also businesses and opportunities,' Michal said.
The Estonian prime minister added: 'So as you know, Estonian education has very high standards and in the PISA [Programme for International Student Assessment] test we are probably among the top, but we want to be on the next level with this AI jump in Estonia. So that probably could also be the basis of working together [with India].'
The reporter was in Tallinn at the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Estonia.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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