Estonia, Argentina working towards achieving peace in Ukraine

  • 2024-11-06
  • BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN - Estonia and Argentina continue to work towards achieving a just peace in Ukraine, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said during his visit to Buenos Aires earlier this week.

The minister was in Buenos Aires on Monday and Tuesday, meeting, among others, with Argentina's new foreign minister and defense minister and opening an Estonian honorary consulate, spokespeople for the Foreign Ministry in Tallinn said.

Tsahkna congratulated Argentina's Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein on his recent appointment and emphasized the need to strengthen cooperation between like-minded countries.

The focus of the meeting was on the next steps in the working group for the fifth point of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's peace formula, which focuses on the enforcement of the UN Charter and the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, and which is co-chaired by Estonia and Argentina.

"Only Russia's withdrawal to its borders and the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity will ensure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine," Tsahkna said. He added that no peace initiatives can be accepted that have been discussed without Ukraine's involvement, and that the basis must be solely President Zelenskyy's peace formula.

In the meeting with Defense Minister Luis Alfonso Petri, Argentina's ambition to become a global partner of NATO and its participation in the Ramstein format were discussed. The ministers agreed that the final outcome of the Russian aggression will affect security worldwide, which is why helping Ukraine to win is important for both Estonia and Argentina.

"Russia's goal is to create a new world order dominated by fear and military might," Tsahkna said. "Russia must clearly lose the war, military aggression must be discredited and the war damage must be repaid, otherwise other authoritarian leaders too may be inspired to change borders by force of arms."

Tsahkna also spoke about the functioning of Estonia's military conscript service and Estonia's principles in increasing defense spending.

The Estonian minister also met with Argentina's minister for digital, innovation and technology, Dario Genua, and the chairman of the Senate foreign affairs committee, Fransisco Manuel Paoltroni, laid a wreath at the statue of General San Martin, the Argentine national hero and the country's founder, and opened an Estonian honorary consulate in Buenos Aires.