New Delhi, Oct 21 (IANS) Estonia's Ambassador Kristi Karelsohn on Wednesday expressed Tallinn's support for India becoming a stronger voice globally. In an interview with IANS, Karelsohn emphasised that the Indian leadership aims to have a greater role in the world and global organisations and Estonia supports New Delhi's ambition of having a greater role in the world.

"I think what we've seen recently is the growing ambition by India, by Indian leadership to have greater role in the world, in global organisations, and I think this ambition is something that needs to be supported because really the organisations, the international structure that we see nowadays has been established already long time ago in a very different era and the circumstances have changed. So, we fully understand and also support the ambition... And, we would definitely like to see democratic, big countries like India to have a stronger voice on different questions and in different fields in the international global environment," said Karelsohn.

The envoy mentioned that Estonia has a strong opinion about Russia's military action in Ukraine and recalled how Russians occupied Estonia for 50 years until it became free in 1991. She said that Russia's war in Ukraine has become "very existential" for Estonia.

"...The same Russia that is currently invading parts of Ukraine and trying to have control over Ukraine also occupied Estonia, as well as other countries at the border. We were occupied for 50 years and we only became free again in 1991. So, of course this war for us, it's not only Russian aggression in Ukraine, but it's also very, very existential for our own country... What we see currently, Russia is also testing NATO countries, it is testing other European countries with random drones flying in, even as far as to Germany and Denmark. Cyberattacks, GPS interference, interference in election process and with that we see that Russia is trying to divide us, to get us confused, and definitely there is a constant threat perception in Estonia that Russia is not really a very reliable neighbour to us," she said.

The Ambassador mentioned that Estonia is not reliant on the Middle Eastern nations for oil. However, she emphasised that the prices of oil and gas have increased following tensions in West Asia.

"This is of course something that is not as close to us as the war in Ukraine, but all that types of conflicts and wars in the world actually only increase the instability. What we've seen now, and what has affected all of our countries rising from that war is, for example, the lack of oil and gas that is available. Estonia is not that reliant on Middle Eastern countries in that sense, but still the prices have gone up, and we all feel insecurity," said Karelsohn.

--IANS

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