Prime Minister Kallas recognised with Transatlantic Leadership Award

In her acceptance speech, Kallas recalled the importance of the transatlantic partnership in Estonia's history. "The transatlantic alliance for us Estonians is the real-world expression of freedom. When Estonia became free again after half a century of Soviet occupation, strong transatlantic support gave us the backing and inspiration we needed when building up our democracy."

"Now, in Ukraine we are defending the very same idea of freedom, their territorial integrity and sovereignty. American long-term bipartisan commitment to NATO and keeping Europe safe is absolutely vital," Kallas noted.

Prime Minister acknowledged that the broad transatlantic community is today more united, in purpose and action, while warning that Russia will keep testing us. "We must scale up our military aid to Ukraine. This war is far from over, but Ukrainians have demonstrated that they can win it and push Russia back to its borders," Prime Minister Kallas said.

The award was presented at CEPA's annual forum. This year's forum, entitled "Meeting the Moment", brings together academics, thinkers, entrepreneurs and political leaders. The three-day forum will focus on how transatlantic cooperation can protect democracies and hold aggressors accountable.

Prime Minister of Latvia Krišjānis Kariņš, Prime Minister of Lithuania Ingrida Šimonytė and Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki were also recognised with the 2022 Transatlantic Leadership Award. Last year, the award was presented to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Acceptance speech: https://valitsus.ee/en/news/prime-minister-kaja-kallas-received-transatlantic-leadership-award-cepa

Video: https://youtu.be/KfckbiqqaXc