Today is Estonia’s Independence Day. Although they are geographically distant, one at the very north and the other at the south of Europe, Malta and Estonia – which both joined the EU in 2004 – share many common positions and aspirations.
As the two countries will next year be celebrating three decades since the establishment of diplomatic relations, President George Vella will visit Tallinn next month, a move that will help cement ties on all levels.
As part of this anniversary celebration, an art exhibition will be held in Tallinn during the next two months, which will focus on portraying the Maltese countryside and rural landscapes.
Bilateral relations between Malta and Estonia have never been as good as they are now. In December of last year, Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo and his Estonian counterpart, Eva Maria Liimets held talks on security in Europe and the Mediterranean during meetings in Tallinn.
The two ministers spoke about the two countries’ common challenges while discussing the political and geographical situation in the Baltic Sea and Mediterranean.
Estonia offers Malta many opportunities in business, education and culture. A lot needs to be done and Malta – not just the government but also the public – is encouraged to explore these opportunities through further interaction with me and my colleagues at the Foreign Ministry and other government agencies.
Indeed, there are reasons to be optimistic about the prospects of strengthening bilateral ties on all levels. One area is education: Estonia has made massive progress in this field and has excelled in international tests in the past years.
Some months ago, following an agreement we reached with the chief executive of the company Tonis Kusmin and with support from the Ministry of Education, Maltese educators, primary school students and parents started using the Estonian mathematics resource ‘99math’. All those children who have an educational tablet as part of the ‘one tablet per child’ initiative have this resource included in their software; this is also thanks to the cooperation and technical assistance of Energy Investments Limited.
These last months, I have had the pleasure of overseeing collaboration between the University of Tartu and the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. The two institutions will be sharing good practices in teacher training, particularly over the next few months.
Only recently, we managed to establish contacts and started a collaboration with Mart Aro – a co-founder of numerous NGOs and companies for education development – and one of Estonia’s most innovative thinkers in the field.
This month, in collaboration with the Estonian Education Authority, HARNO, I had the pleasure of spearheading a webinar jointly held by Education Estonia and my office, in collaboration with the Maltese Association ECDAM, the Ministry of Education and Research of Estonia and the Education and Youth Board. About 100 online attendees joined this activity.
President George Vella will visit Tallinn next month, a move that will help cement ties on all levels- Kenneth Vella
During this event, Marie-Louise Coleiro, president of Eurochild, shared her message about early childhood education and care, the work of early years advocates and how these give children a voice.
Guest speakers included early childhood education and care (ECEC) experts from Estonia, Tiina Petterson and Maria Jürimäe, who shared the history, culture, policy, practice, curricula, pedagogy, and the joys and pleasures embedded in the early years’ sector of Estonia. Another keynote speaker was Valerie Sollars, who shared an overview of the history of early years in Malta.
Cooperation between Malta and Estonia is not limited to education; in fact, over the past months, a leading Maltese food company has embarked on a collaboration with a similar firm in Estonia. The results of this cooperation are expected to bear fruit at the end of the year.
We have also started working on tourism and sports tourism, with meetings with major football clubs in Estonia and top officials from the Estonian Tourism and Travel Association. I strongly feel that Malta can learn more from fostering deeper ties with Estonia in this field.
In the past weeks, I met several Maltese tour operators who have shown interest in offering tour packages to Estonia and others who are willing to work on incoming tourism. I support such initiatives as this will also bring the two countries closer on a cultural level.
Estonian football clubs have expressed a desire to visit our country for training in the coming months. The introduction of direct flights to and from Estonia last November makes such collaboration more manageable. And an equestrian event between Maltese and Estonians will be held in Malta next month; a similar one will be held in Tallinn in summer.
Malta’s exports to Estonia amounted to €4.06 million in 2020, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. Meanwhile, between 2015 and 2018, inbound tourism from Estonia to Malta more than doubled, reaching almost 12,000 in 2018, according to the Malta Tourism Authority.
I wish to take the opportunity to thank the Ambassador of Estonia to Malta, Paul Teesalu, for his ongoing support and interest.
I would also like to commend our Maltese Consul in Estonia, Aku Sorainen and his assistant, Merit Kuus. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have assisted hundreds of Maltese and Estonians travelling between our two states. I also wish to thank the Estonian Consul in Malta, Ian De Cesare, for his work and support.
Kenneth Vella, Ambassador of Malta to Estonia and Finland