Good afternoon, and Hendriks, thank you so much for welcoming me so warmly to TalTech, and thank you to the students, to the researchers and professors who are here with us today. The last time I spoke to students here in Tallinn was in October 2024, and a lot has changed in those two years. Russia has lost hundreds, hundreds of thousands of troops in Ukraine, and instead of speaking peace, Putin has continued to sen...
Good afternoon, and Hendriks, thank you so much for welcoming me so warmly to TalTech, and thank you to the students, to the researchers and professors who are here with us today. The last time I spoke to students here in Tallinn was in October 2024, and a lot has changed in those two years. Russia has lost hundreds, hundreds of thousands of troops in Ukraine, and instead of speaking peace, Putin has continued to send so many to slaughter for no real gain. With these failures on the battlefield, Russia has ramped up its brutal airstrikes on Ukrainian civilians, and as you know, it has launched a campaign of hybrid attacks across Europe, including here in Estonia, to weaken our support for Ukraine. On top of all of this, there have been major advances in AI and autonomous systems, as you know well here at the University of Technology. But it's not just the world that has changed, NATO has changed as well, undertaking a historic transformation that is strengthening our alliance. At the NATO summit in 2025 in The Hague, Allies committed to invest 5% of their annual GDP in defence by 2035. And since then, they have indeed made major progress, with some already meeting the 5% target, and Estonia has even surpassed it. Allies are using this money to develop cutting-edge defence capabilities: drones, satellites, aircraft, AI-enabled systems, and much more. And as they grow their capabilities, European Allies and Canada are stepping up and taking on more responsibility for our shared security, not only to rebalance with the United States, but to reinforce the European pillar of NATO and to further strengthen the transatlantic bonds at the heart of our Alliance. All of this is building NATO 3.0, which is a stronger, a fairer, a more capable NATO with Europe, Canada, and the United States working together to keep our one billion people across the Alliance safe. We are transforming for the future, but even now, NATO is rarely enabled to defend every inch of our territory, and NATO Allies are fully committed to Article 5 of our founding treaty, which states that an attack on one of us is an attack against all of us. That was the message that all Allies sent at our Summit in Ankara, where they reaffirmed their ironclad commitment to collective defence. And this is also my main message here today. NATO stands with Estonia against every threat. Let me be very clear, there is no imminent military threat to NATO territory. If there is a build-up, like there was before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, then we will see it and we will deal with it. We are prepared and we have trained for this, which is why Putin is not attacking us directly, but waging a campaign of hybrid attacks against us instead. But in the face of these threats, we should prevent, we should prepare, and we should persevere. Prevent attacks by maintaining vigilance and further building our strong defences, prepare our societies to withstand any disruption, and persevere in our support for Ukraine, no matter what. Putin wants to intimidate us, divide us, and weaken our support for Ukraine, but he will fail because we are united in our commitment to support Ukraine. And because we are committed to protecting our freedom and our way of life, and to ensuring we have what it takes to do that through investment, through innovation and industry. And also here, Estonia is leading by example. You are spending 5% on core defence, which is the vital military capabilities needed to defend our alliance. You are supporting Ukraine. In fact, you are one of Ukraine's biggest supporters on a per capita basis. Estonia is leading on defence spending and support for Ukraine because you know that freedom has a cost, and it is well worth paying to maintain independence and security. This investment is good for Estonia and it is good for NATO. Estonian startups are developing cutting-edge technologies, and NATO is supporting them through the NATO DIANA Innovation Accelerator here in Tallinn. Estonian tech companies are manufacturing drones, air defence interceptors, cyber security systems, battlefield software, energy storage solutions, and much more. And Estonian defence companies are working closely with companies from the other NATO Allies and partners, combining Estonia's strengths in software, AI, and autonomous systems with the heavy manufacturing capabilities and large-scale resources of other countries. And all of this in the meantime is also growing Estonia’s economy. Creating good jobs for skilled workers, and opportunities for people with good ideas. And we know that Estonia is a place where people can turn a good idea into reality, which many people in this room have done, or no doubt will do in the near future. It is also making NATO stronger. Across the Alliance, European Allies and Canada are stepping up to take the lead for the conventional defence of Europe. And Estonia is a great example of this. At Tapa Army Base, you host NATO’s Forward Land Forces in Estonia, helping Allies train on the ground and gain experience working together. At Ämari Air Base, you host the NATO Air Defence mission, helping Allies protect NATO’s skies along the eastern flank. You have also led the creation of NATO’s digital shield, sharing your cybersecurity expertise through the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence here in Tallinn. And what’s remarkable about Estonia is that it’s not just your national defence forces, or your advanced tech sector, or your growing defence industry that are contributing to NATO’s strength, it’s everyone. At NATO, we talk about a whole-of-society approach to resilience and what this really means is that everyone – school children and retirees, construction workers and CEOs – knows what to do when disaster strikes. In Estonia, we see a level of national civil preparedness that we would like to see across the whole of NATO. Tens of thousands of people volunteer through the Estonian Defence League, helping enhance national readiness. And again, I’m sure that many of you in this room have volunteered, or completed military service. And you have learned resilience skills in school, from basic survival skills to media literacy against disinformation. And this model of civil resilience helps keep Estonia strong and free. By sharing it with NATO Allies, Estonia is helping our entire Alliance to build resilience and stand firm against Russia’s escalating wave of hybrid attacks. This spirit of solidarity within Estonian society, and with your NATO Allies, is truly inspiring. Your NATO Allies also stand with you. And in that spirit of solidarity, I want to finish my short introduction with a story about some students like you. Students from what was then Tallinn Technical University, and the University of Tartu. And this was back in 1982, during the Soviet occupation. The students went to a Communist Youth League summer camp. Maybe you’ve heard about the story. And in principle, this was to help the Soviet economy by contributing cheap labour, and to provide training in good old Soviet work ethics. But in practice, the students did something else. They set up a NATO base, in 1982, in Soviet-occupied Estonia. Taking advantage of their lack of supervision, they wrote a protest song to the tune of Yankee Doodle and despite the piano, don’t worry, I won’t sing for you today. They created English-language signs, a strict exercise schedule, and even had afternoon tea every day, because it was a British NATO base. Little did they know that 35 years later, a British-led NATO multinational battlegroup would be deployed to Estonia. Or that one of them would go on to become Estonia’s Ambassador to NATO, and help pave the way for Estonia’s NATO membership in 2004. I end with this story because I believe it is a good reminder of the mindset of resilience, and the spirit of resistance, that Estonians showed during the long Soviet occupation. And it is also a good reminder that so often in history it is young people, like you, who dare to stand up, to laugh at the would-be empire and to show the world how weak it really is. We are in a serious moment. Russia is brutally attacking Ukraine. It is harassing Europe with hybrid attacks. And it remains a long-term threat to NATO. But we must remember that they’re doing this not because they are strong, but because they are weak. Not because they are winning, but because they are desperate. And as long as we stand together, united in NATO, we are stronger than any threat they can make. As long as we have young people like you, showing courage and creativity, our Alliance will keep our one billion people safe, now and in the future. Thank you.
Speech Brief