Estonia celebrated its Independence Day yesterday. The origins of this national day go back to 1918.
Estonia has a population of around 1,300,000 people. It is a member of the United Nations and also joined the European Union in 2004. Estonia is also a member of the OECD, the OSCE, Schengen and the International Labour Organisation. The country had joined NATO in 2004.
Estonia is the only country in the world which has an elected female prime minister and president. Kersti Kaljulaid was elected as the country’s president after the 2016 elections while Kaja Kallas, the leader of the Reform Party, was asked to form and lead a new coalition government at the start of this year.
Estonia is also considered a centre of excellence in the field of education, digital technology, blockchain and artificial intelligence.
Relations between Estonia and Malta
Officially, our country recognised Estonia on August 26, 1991, with diplomatic relations being established on January 1, 1992. It was in May 2001 when then president Guido de Marco had made the first state visit by a Maltese president to the country. In the following years, other Maltese dignitaries and leaders carried made similar visits.
Estonia is considered a centre of excellence in education, digital technology, blockchain and artificial intelligence
Estonian leaders also reciprocated these visits by visiting our country on various occasions. It was in September 2011 when prime minister Mart Laar visited Malta. Laar was the first Estonian high-level official to visit our country. Recently, in September 2017, President Kaljulaid attended the international meeting organised by the Arrailos Group in Malta and, a month later, former prime minister Juri Ratas met former Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat.
Cultural and economic relations
During the past years, Estonia successfully organised the Estonian Film Days in our country. These were held in Valletta and served to promote the country’s film industry and the Estonian culture in general. A number of Estonian artists also took part in the annual children’s and youth festival Żigużajg, in the Malta International Organ Festival and in the Malta International Arts Festival.
Marsascala is twinned with the Estonian town of Turi, which is situated in the county of Java.
Economic data for the past five years confirms that Malta imported from Estonia material related to the milling industry, wood, dairy products, chemical products and mineral fuels. On the other hand, Malta exported to Estonia pharmaceutical products, aircraft, items related to machinery and equipment, clocks and watches.
A Maltese company, Premier Capital plc, which represents the American fast food chain McDonald’s on our islands, is also the development licensee for Estonia and other European countries.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Malta and Estonia were doing their utmost to increase the number of tourists visiting the two countries. This was thanks also to the ongoing collaboration between the Malta Tourism Authority and the Estonian counterpart and the weekly flights to and from Tallinn operated by Ryanair. These initiatives were also the result of a number of trade agreements signed in the past between the two countries, namely the agreement on the Abolishment of Visa Requirements, which came into force in 1998, the one on the Avoidance of Double Taxation, which started to be implemented in January 2003, and the framework for the statistical transfer of energy from renewable sources signed last year.
Estonia and Malta today
I believe that our country has the potential to collaborate more with Estonia, also in different areas like education, manufacturing, the services sector, medical tourism, blockchain, digital media and sports tourism.
It is for this reason that, in the past months and in collaboration with our consular in Estonia, Aku Johannes Sorainen, and his colleague Merit Kuus, we managed to organise a number of introductory meetings for Maltese companies working in the health and tourism sectors.
Apart from this, thanks to the support of Tonis Kusmin, co-founder and CEO of 99math, we succeeded to conclude a collaboration agreement with this Estonian entity which allows this essential mathematics tool to be used by all Maltese primary and secondary educators, students and parents for free. This will allow Maltese educators to be the first outside Estonia to make use of the premium version for free for a whole year after its launch later on this year.
A number of initiatives are also planned for the coming months. This is in cooperation with officials from the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industy, the office of the Consular of Estonia to Malta, Ian De Cesare, and the new ambassador of Estonia to Malta, Paul Teesalu, who will be presenting his letter of credence to President George Vella today and meeting the Minister for European and Foreign Affairs, Evarist Bartolo.
I also take the opportunity to thank these gentlemen for their availability in the past weeks as, personally, I am confident that, in the coming years, there will be more collaboration between Malta and Estonia in these areas and other sectors. The geographical distance and other differences between our country and this Baltic country should not limit or hinder such collaboration.
Finally, on the occasion of their Independence Day, I send my best wishes to all Estonian citizens living in Malta and around the world.
Kenneth Vella, Ambassador to Finland and Designated Ambassador to Estonia