Estonian parlt speaker confirms support to establishment of intl special tribunal

TALLINN – Estonian parliament speaker Juri Ratas and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic at a meeting on Thursday discussed further support for Ukraine, confirming strong support for the establishment of an international special tribunal to investigate Russia’s crime of aggression.

Ratas said at the meeting that Estonia and Croatia share the same values and that the bilateral cooperation of the two countries in both the European Union and NATO is excellent. He underlined that the unity of the Western countries is especially relevant in the current complicated security situation.

"It is very important that we also stand united in our positions on the war of aggression Russia has launched in Ukraine. We will do our utmost to support Ukraine in every way we can and to offer them political, military and humanitarian aid. We also strongly support the establishment of an international special tribunal and consider it important to continue with imposing sanctions on Russia in order to raise the cost of aggression," Ratas said.

The parliament speaker highlighted the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO as a positive step. According to him, it will strengthen security in the entire alliance, especially on NATO's eastern flank. He separately thanked Croatia for its cooperation in the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCDCOE) in Tallinn and welcomed the country’s recent accession to the eurozone and the Schengen area. Ratas also considered it necessary to continue close contacts between the parliaments of Estonia and Croatia.

At the meeting, Ratas and Plenkovic also spoke about the challenges relating to inflation and ways to alleviate energy costs and discussed the situation in the Western Balkans in a broader context.